The MentalSpace School Podcast

Some students walk in this month having changed schools three times in two years. The roster gives you a name and nothing else, and often that's intentional. A few things that make the first weeks better for students in foster and kinship care: Rethink the family assignments. "Bring in a baby pict Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalS...

Some students spend the entire ride to school rehearsing how to say hello. Then they walk in and say nothing. Friendship anxiety and social re-entry are one of the quietest struggles of the first weeks back. It rarely looks like distress. It looks like a kid who is "fine," who says they don't reall Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #M...

Every August, the same conversation happens in thousands of Georgia homes: "You're on that phone too much." It rarely works, and here's why. Summer screen habits weren't laziness. For many students the phone was where their friendships lived for ten weeks straight. A hard cutoff on the first week o Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Complianc...

The new student in your building already knows the academic part is survivable. It's lunch that scares them. Belonging isn't a feeling schools have to wait for. It gets built on purpose: • A named peer buddy, not just a welcome folder • One adult greeting them by name every day for the first 20 sc Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalS...

A tired teenager and a teenager with ADHD can look nearly identical from the front of a classroom. Inattention. Irritability. Forgetfulness. Falling behind on work they clearly understand. Every August schools see a wave of it — and a meaningful share is a sleep schedule that drifted two or three h Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchoo...

The hardest twenty minutes of a family's day happen before 8am. Shoes that can't be found. A stomachache that only appears on school days. A child who was fine at bedtime and is on the floor by breakfast. The parent arrives at work already depleted, and the student arrives at school already dysregu Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Mental...

Ninth grade is the year most likely to knock a student off track — and often the year districts watch the least. The research here is unusually consistent: how a student performs in 9th grade predicts on-time graduation better than their test scores or their 8th grade grades do. One semester of sli Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchoo...

The worst time to write a crisis plan is during a crisis. Every Georgia district has some version of one. The real question is whether it holds up at 2:15 on a Tuesday, when a counselor is out, the student in front of you has just disclosed something serious, and three people are waiting on a decis Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchoo...

Sixth grade is one of the biggest jumps a child ever makes. One teacher becomes seven. One classroom becomes a schedule, a locker, and a hallway full of strangers. Friend groups reshuffle from scratch. And all of it lands exactly when early adolescence is rewiring how they read themselves and every Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchoo...

The first 30 days set the tone for the whole school year. For a lot of students, going back isn't excitement — it's a stomachache on the bus, tears at drop-off, or a teenager who suddenly can't sleep. Some of that is normal adjustment. Some of it is the early signal of something that gets much loud Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #M...

Before the students arrive, a word about the adults. Your teachers are walking into this year already carrying last year. Many of them spent it de-escalating crises they were never trained for, absorbing stories they couldn't unhear, and going home with nowhere to put it. Then we ask them to be th Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceS...

Question for Georgia school leaders: if a student in crisis walked into your building tomorrow morning, how many hours would it take to get them in front of a licensed clinician? For a lot of districts the honest answer is days — or a referral list and a hope. That gap is what HB-268 readiness is Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchool...

Georgia classrooms open in a matter of days — and for a lot of students, the anxiety started weeks ago. Back-to-school anxiety rarely announces itself. It shows up as: • Stomachaches and headaches that appear on school mornings and vanish by 10am • Sleep that falls apart in the last two weeks of s Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchool...

If your teen has seemed newly irritable, anxious, or down, it's easy to chalk it up to moodiness — or to leap straight to fears about addiction. But there's a possibility that often gets missed: sometimes a substance itself is driving the mood. Alcohol, cannabis, vaping and nicotine, even some presc Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Menta...

If your child suddenly won't eat certain foods, keeps asking "what if I get sick?", or begs to stay home from school, it's easy to chalk it up to pickiness or a nervous phase. But sometimes there's something more specific underneath: an intense fear of vomiting, known as emetophobia. Kids with this Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Complianc...

"Kids are resilient — they'll bounce back from a move." It's true that children adapt, but a big transition can hit harder than we expect. When a family relocates or a child starts at a new school, the loss of familiar faces, routines, and a sense of belonging is real. For some kids, that shows up w Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Gu...

To the family quietly worried tonight — this one's for you. 💛 When a child has Tourette's, often with co-occurring OCD, it can feel isolating. But those tics and rituals aren't misbehavior. They're neurological, and your child is not choosing them. Signs you might see: • Repeated movements or voc Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guid...

Let's bust a myth: "Teens changing themselves to fit in is just a phase." Sometimes it is. But adolescent identity and peer-pressure stress can genuinely overwhelm a young person — reshaping their mood, confidence, and decisions. What to look for: • Rapidly shifting behavior or style to match a gr Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Me...

Parents and educators: when a child has frequent headaches but the doctor finds nothing physically wrong, stress may be doing the talking. Psychophysiological (stress-related) headaches are common in kids who are carrying more than they can express. A few signs worth noticing: • Headaches that app Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceSchool...

If mealtimes with your young child have become a daily struggle, more than the usual 'I don't like that,' it may be worth understanding Pediatric Feeding Disorder. Almost every little one goes through picky phases, so how do you tell the difference? A feeding disorder is more intense and more persis Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #...

If mealtimes with your young child have become a daily struggle, more than the usual 'I don't like that,' it may be worth understanding Pediatric Feeding Disorder. Almost every little one goes through picky phases, so how do you tell the difference? A feeding disorder is more intense and more persis Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #...

If your child comes undone at the sight of a needle, a dentist's chair, or even the doctor's waiting room, crying, shaking, or flat-out refusing to go, please hear this tonight: this fear is very common, and it can be overcome. Childhood Phobia of Medical and Dental Procedures is an intense, persist Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Menta...

Here is a myth that piles shame onto kids who are already struggling: "A child who keeps picking at their skin is just fidgety and needs to be told to stop." In reality, Pediatric Excoriation (Skin-Picking) Disorder is a recognized body-focused repetitive behavior, not a habit and not misbehavior. I Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Menta...

This is one of the most important things we will ever post, please read it and save it. If a teen you love is talking about wanting to die, feeling like a burden, or believing others would be better off without them, take it seriously every single time. Warning signs can include pulling away from pe Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #MentalSpaceScho...

If your child comes undone at the sight of a needle, a dentist's chair, or even the doctor's waiting room, crying, shaking, or flat-out refusing to go, please hear this tonight: this fear is very common, and it can be overcome. Childhood Phobia of Medical and Dental Procedures is an intense, persist Generated from MentalSpace School: Georgia K-12 Mental Health and Compliance Guide #Menta...