Fairfax Co. students say mental health is getting better, though concerns remain
Fewer Fairfax County students in Virginia have reported mental health concerns since the peak of the pandemic — but there are still lingering worries about student wellness and bullying.
At last week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Michelle Reid detailed the findings of the 2024 Fairfax County Youth Survey.
For one, mental health indicators, such as levels of stress, prolonged feelings of sadness or hopelessness and suicidal ideation and attempts improved among eighth, 10th and 12th graders last year. Those factors have continued to improve since 2021, Reid said, and reached their lowest levels in the last decade.
Seventeen percent of eighth, 10th and 12th graders reported constant stress, according to survey data, and 22% reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row, which is down from 25% in 2023, 29% in 2022 and 38% in 2021.
“This is full of very, very good news,” Board member Robyn Lady said. “It’s post-COVID. Our kids are, I’m hoping, learning to live in discomfort a little better and understand that … we don’t get up every morning and we’re jazzed about everything that’s going to happen in that day.”
However, Reid said, female students, nonbinary students, LGBTQ students and those who are from food-insecure homes reported higher rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts compared to other students.
“We still have work to do in providing that safe space for many of our students,” Reid said.
Counseling staff and school leaders are working on making sure school environments are safe, supportive and welcoming, Reid said, but “there’s a great deal of external rhetoric right now around topics that create feelings of a lack of safety, particularly for our transgender and nonbinary students.”
Because mental health concerns are often reported in middle school, Reid said the district has tried to be proactive, by offering things like new middle school sports teams. Staff members also get trained in recognizing the signs of suicidal ideation and risky behavior.
Reported rates of students using alcohol and substances was the lowest since 2018, Reid said, including for use of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and vaping.
One out of 10 eighth, 10th and 12th graders reported getting bullied on a school campus in the last year, similar to the rate reported in 2023, Reid said. Younger students were more likely to report being bullied than older kids.
“We have work to do in this area,” Reid said.
The youth survey is voluntary and given to eighth, 10th and 12th graders. Last year, almost 30,000 students took it. A different version that’s also optional is given to sixth grade students.
“This is always a bittersweet report to read, because there’s positive movement in many directions,” Board member Kyle McDaniel said. “But until we get to zero, it’s not enough.”