YORK, Pa. — The annual State of Education report is out—and hundreds of school districts across Pennsylvania are outlining the biggest issues facing many educators in 2024.
The report was put together by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and surveyed 56% of all school districts in the Commonwealth.
For the second year in a row, student mental health needs are the biggest challenge outlined by school leaders across Pennsylvania.
“We’ve seen student mental health issues really skyrocket to the top of challenges school leaders say they are facing," said Andrew Christ, the senior director of education policy at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
According to the survey, two-thirds of school districts reported student mental health needs as one of their biggest challenges. On average, 46.6% of students were estimated to have some mental health needs.
The report adds that a lack of mental health resources remains the biggest problem to help students in need.
“School leaders are reporting difficulties in finding someone to connect the student with to address their mental health issues," said Christ.
Respondents say budgetary concerns are also a top-of-mind issue—with charter school tuition, special education costs and inadequate state funding causing the most pressure. Christ added that as costs for schools have gone up, state funding has lagged behind.
“Over the past ten years, we’ve seen mandated costs for pensions, charter school tuition, and special education increase by more than six billion dollars," said Christ. "And we’ve seen the state revenue to cover those costs for schools increase by only two billion dollars.”
Chris Lillienthal with the Pennsylvania State Education Association stressed that those issues have also contributed to staffing shortages and burnout. According to the report, 50.4% of school districts said they had open teaching positions entering the 2023-24 school year.
Survey respondents say the biggest positions in need are substitute teachers and instructional aides.
“They really do fill an essential role in our schools and unfortunately we don’t have enough of them to fill the need," said Lillienthal.
Christ said schools continue working to provide for their students, in spite of the challenges laid out in the report.
“The inadequate funding, the mental health issues, the pandemic impacts, they’re dealing with all of that and still are trying to educate kids," said Christ.
You can read the entirety of the 2024 State of Education report on the Pennsylvania School Boards Association's website.