Education and Health Secretaries Visit St. Louis Schools to Highlight Student Mental Health and HBCU Support

Two members of President Joe Biden's cabinet visited St. Louis on Wednesday as part of a back-to-school bus tour through the Midwest. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has spent the week traveling in a large blue bus to promote the Biden-Harris Administration's education priorities. The St. Louis stop centered on student mental health and on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Cardona was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at Compton-Drew Middle School. During a walk through the building, the two officials saw the steps school leaders have taken to address student trauma and mental health challenges. In a "calm-down room," students demonstrated yoga for the visitors. St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Keisha Scarlett and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, were also present to offer local perspective on issues facing schools nationwide.

Principal Susan Reid said students returning to in-person classes after the isolation of the pandemic needed far more mental health support to cope with the trauma they had experienced. Staff saw that pain reflected in a rise in behavior problems. The school responded by creating the calm-down room and adopting Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, including a reward program called "Dolphin Tickets," named for the school's mascot. Reid's team recorded a 60% drop in suspensions last year compared with the year before.

Cardona said mental health services in schools tend to be reactionary, "but we have a model here that's proactive. That lessens incidents of trauma and quite frankly we want to lift up this model because across the country we need to do better." The administration is working to increase federal funding for community schools, which can include mental health support.

Becerra said schools now serve as places for health as well as learning. "It is hard to learn if you are hungry. It is hard to learn if you are unhoused. It is hard to learn if you are burdened by stress and trauma," he said.

Scarlett warned the secretaries that programs like the one at Compton-Drew cannot depend on pandemic relief money, which will soon run out. "We have to sustain the funding," she said. "Our country has to fund our values, and what are our values? Nothing is more important than our children."

Later Wednesday, Cardona joined students at Harris-Stowe State University for a roundtable on financial aid and ways to better serve historically Black colleges and universities. During the pandemic, the Education Department created the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to keep students enrolled and help offset rising costs. Harris-Stowe received $37,210,393 from the fund. The university used some of the money for emergency grants to students, to clear outstanding student account balances and to help build its science, technology, engineering and math building. It also paid for upgrades to campus buildings and for technology equipment and software to support virtual learning.

Cardona told students the administration aims to repair a broken student loan system and will keep investing in historically Black universities. "When we talk about inclusivity and leveling the playing field, supporting HBCUs is critical," he said. He added that the federal government is funding improvements to HBCU campus buildings and wants the schools to be able to compete with other universities on technology. "If you don't have the equipment to compete for research grants, then it also lessens the attractiveness [of schools]," he said.

Jordan Ross, an accounting senior, said student morale and participation in campus activities rose at Harris-Stowe because many students received federal grants to cover tuition and fees. "Peace of mind is one thing, but financial relief is a whole different ball game," the source quoted a student as saying.