WIP 63 - Falling Further Behind?: Investigating the Intersection of Mental Health and School Performance for Children with Special Health Care Needs during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Fellow Physician University of Virginia School of Medicine Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures across the United States, disrupting traditional in-person instruction. The abrupt shift to remote learning resulted in learning loss for many students, especially those receiving special education services. These changes to schooling also affected children’s mental health, with rates of depression and anxiety doubling over the course of the pandemic. However, little research has investigated the effect of declining mental health on school performance and even less has been done on children receiving special education and related services via an individualized education plan (IEP). Objective: To investigate the link between mental health and school performance for middle school students with and without an IEP over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/Methods: We obtained de-identified demographic and school record data from a large public school system in Virginia (n=3,800 6th and 7th grade students) from the 2018-2019 to 2021-2022 school years. We also extracted corresponding data from electronic health records and through chart review among adolescents of comparable age living in an area served by the same middle schools over the same period (n=460). The health record data includes demographic information, diagnoses related to mental health, prescription data for psychoactive medications, and referrals. The study was approved by our institution’s Institutional Review Board.
Data collection through chart review is ongoing, with planned completion by the end of November 2023. Analysis will include descriptive statistics and repeated measures Analyses of Variance to examine trends in school performance and markers of mental health care utilization over time among students with and without documented IEPs. Analyses will examine change over time (1) among adolescents in the full samples of the same grade level, and then (2) among a matched sample of adolescents with similar demographic characteristics and geographic locations across the education and health data. Preliminary analysis will be completed in January 2024.
