The U.S. surgeon general released a rare public advisory Dec. 7 confirming what parents know in our bones: Kids are in crisis.

“The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate,” Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy wrote. “And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating.”

From 2009 to 2019, the proportion of high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased by 40%, the advisory states. The share seriously considering attempting suicide increased by 36%, and the share creating a suicide plan increased by 44%.

CPS has a history of falling short when it comes to providing educational services for kids with disabilities, which is why parents might understandably suspect that the district’s recent failures to do the job right, as required by state law, is at least somewhat intentional. That CPS is simply trying to minimize its responsibilities.

Records show that 10,515 special education students were wrongfully denied services in 2018, and only 214 students — or 2% — have received compensatory assistance as of July 2021.

Some 1,500 children have been identified as potentially harmed by this CPS failure. Yet only 16 of those students, or 1%, have received compensatory help, with another 360 deemed ineligible for compensation because they could not prove their case.

Student performance took a hit during the pandemic, but the situation was particularly bad at high schools serving mostly low-income students, where failing grades spiked and attendance plummeted, according to an analysis from WBEZ’s Sarah Karp.

Third quarter grades show 20% of freshmen and 38% of sophomores were failing English. Thirty percent of freshmen and nearly 40% of sophomores were failing math. Research shows just one F in freshman or sophomore year can doom a student’s chances of making it to graduation.

Roughly 7 million children in the U.S. receive special education services under a decades-old federal law — or did, until the pandemic began. Many of those services slowed or stopped when schools physically shut down in spring 2020. Modified instruction, behavioral counseling, and speech and physical therapy disappeared or were feebly reproduced online, for three, six, nine months. In some places, they have yet to fully resume. For many children with disabilities, families say this disruption wasn't just difficult. It was devastating.

While a public health necessity, masks challenge our skill in understanding facial expressions, confusing our ability to distinguish disgust from anger or happiness from indifference, several new studies say.

If the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board agrees with the union, CPS’ planned return to in-person learning could go on hold for weeks as the two sides work through their differences.

A flood of new data — on the national, state, and district levels — finds students began this academic year behind. Most of the research concludes students of color and those in high-poverty communities fell further behind their peers, exacerbating long-standing gaps in American education.

As millions of youth nationwide embark on Computer Science Education Week, Google throws an assist to 1,000 Chicago Public Schools students on the South and West sides, with free computers being delivered to their homes.

Check out this blog post from our partners, Chicago Psychotherapy, to learn 20 evidence-based strategies for self-care.

When class resumes, it’ll vary greatly from school to school. Some will be mostly paper packets while others will be mostly online.

The abrupt switch to remote learning wiped out academic gains for many students in America, and widened racial and economic gaps. Catching up in the fall won’t be easy.