Dawson Springs Independent School District

By Cassie Ipock, Communications Coordinator

 

Kentucky's Lieutenant Governor, Jacqueline Coleman, is currently touring the Commonwealth, lending an ear to educators.

 

Coleman hosted her fifth event in the Educator Mental Health Listening Session series on January 22 at Caldwell County High School.  She extended invitations to teachers in the Dawson Springs Independent School District to take part in the forum.

 

"As someone who's been in your shoes, I know firsthand the challenges teachers face," said Coleman.  "Your mental health matters – not just for you, but for your students and the entire school community."

 

The Educator Mental Health Listening Sessions come after Coleman's Student Mental Health Initiative.  In an effort in to "include and elevate student voice," Coleman stated that the students on the panels recommended "providing comprehensive suicide prevention, allowing excused mental health absences, expanding access to mental health services and treatment, increasing mental health awareness and education, and increasing and improving mental health professional development."

 

Coleman then listed the accomplishments of her student-based initiative, which included 10 summits with over 300 participants.  "We presented recommendations to approximately 1,000 people, our student advisors reviewed and made recommendations on a new Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Kentucky schools, legislation passed allowing excused mental health absences for Kentucky students, engaged with the United States Department of Education, SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), and at the United Nations, and announced over $40 million in United States Department of education funding to expand access to school-based mental health services," she said.

 

The Lieutenant Governor hopes these sessions focused on the Commonwealth's teachers will be just as successful.  39,410 educators participated in the 2023-24 Impact Kentucky Working Conditions Survey, in which "56 percent indicated they were concerned about their emotional well-being and 66 percent are concerned about the emotional well-being of their colleagues," Coleman explained.  "The data tells us that teacher well-being impacts a variety of student outcomes; better teacher wellbeing is associated with better student wellbeing; and there is an association between teacher presenteeism and absence with student wellbeing and psychological distress." 

 

During Thursday's assembly, there were two breakout sessions: one for the teachers present, while the other included the administrators in attendance.  In the breakout sessions, Coleman's staff and employees of the Kentucky Department of Education took notes on the concerns the local school employees had, as well as discussions on protocols in place that seem to be working or have a positive effect on the mental health of school staff members.

 

The teachers returned to the whole group with recommendations, including: mandated, protected lunch and planning periods, a more reasonable pace to teach core content, not labeling time off as "sick" or "personal," paid parental leave, and better mental health coverage through medical insurance for school employees.

 

The administrators reported actions taken to support mental health in some of the local districts, highlighting: mentoring new teachers, conducting meetings during lunch to avoid scheduling those during after school hours, checking on each other, eating lunch together, group chats, holiday dinners, and meeting with legislators.

 

At the end of the session, Heather Dearing, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Lieutenant Governor, described the next steps.  "We're going to do one more of these—we're aiming to have it done by mid-February," she said.  "We're going to roll this data into themes and then build recommendations based on those."

 

"That's our goal," Dearing concluded.  "Identify some policy recommendations, and we're going to let you all see those recommendations before we finalize them."