Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces $108 Million Available for Schools to Address Pandemic Learning Loss and Support Mental Health

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $108 million is available for school districts to support student well-being through expanding mental health supports. The new State matching fund, the $100 million Recover from COVID School Program, will provide funding to create or expand programs to help students address trauma caused by the pandemic, prioritizing school districts with the highest need. Additionally, a portion of the $100 million Recover from COVID School Program is available to address student learning loss exacerbated by the pandemic. Governor Hochul is also expanding school-based mental health clinics across the state through an $8.3 million investment within her historic $1 billion mental health plan. Today’s announcement of funding advances one of Governor Hochul’s State of the State priorities to expand mental health support for students and school staff.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Today is about our children, more precisely, the future of our children - whether they'll continue to slide academically, emotionally, socially or whether we as a state say, “No more.” Today, we stop that slide, and we start turning the tide and lifting them up and giving them the prospects of a far better future.

This is the state of New York, and failure is not an option. So, I'm really, really proud to be here in this place that reminds us of the symbolism, great buildings that were built at a time when people thought our possibilities were unlimited, and to be here today with a leader, someone who has been a great champion for our children, teachers, families, indeed, all of New York, Commissioner Betty Rosa.

Thank you for reaching your handout in partnership, building a bridge where there has not been as strong a bridge as there could have been in the past, and I thank you for sharing your values with all of us and implementing them across the state of New York. Let's give another round of applause to Betty Rosa.

We talk about partners. We need partners, and I'll be talking more about the role our teachers play, and my God, they've been through so much. But to have Melinda Person, the president of NYSUT, here with us today is another symbol of the partnership, the relationships, the alliances that are all coming together toward a common purpose. Let's give Melinda a round of applause as well.

And as you talk about playing nice in the sandbox, I brought nice people to the sandbox. I have Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan, the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Health, and also our Commissioner of Health, James McDonald. I want to thank them for what they're doing on behalf of our administration to talk about that we're not working in silos. That education is not over here and health is over here and mental health is over here. They all come together in our young children, and so, I thank you for being the partners that I've needed as well.

We also have our local officials here representing the state capitol, without a long commute, but with a lot of passion. That would be Assemblymember John McDonald and Assemblymember Pat Fahy. Thank you for your role in education as well, both of you. Thank you.

The mayor didn't have a long commute today either. Thank you Mayor Sheehan for caring so much, so deeply about the prospects and the outcomes for our children in Albany City schools as well and all the great work you do. We also have our Albany School Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter. And I want to thank all of our partners in education advocacy that are here - our PTA’s, our parents.

It's hard to believe it's already August. Summer is flying by, and the new school year is right around the corner. And it's nice to look forward to this next year without having to say, “Are we going to do vaccinations? Do we have to wear a mask? What are we going to do? What do we do?” We're in a better place than we were just a few short years ago, without a doubt. We've come a long way. No remote learning, no social distancing, no more masks.

It feels good to be back to normal, except is normal good enough anymore? Because something happened during that period of time - unforeseen. No one at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020 could have foreseen that three years later, despite the fact that we had vaccinations and we saved lives and people are starting to get back to work and feeling somewhat normal again, we could not have foreseen the impact that this has had on our most vulnerable - our kids. No one could have predicted it. No one thought - when they get back to the classroom, they see their friends again, everything's back to normal - but they lost so much learning, socialization, the older kids during that time when they're home, spending more time on social media. Another topic for another day, but a lot of negativity there that is having an effect on the psyche, especially our teenage daughters who are entertaining concepts, ideas of suicide at higher rates than every before in our history.

And I don't think anyone would've seen that all across America, math and reading scores would plummet after the pandemic, all across the country, It's not just a New York phenomenon. But this is New York and we'll take care of it here. So back to normal isn't going to work when our kids are already starting from behind. And our kids are also experiencing a mental health crisis like never before. So we have to do something differently.

And that's what we're talking about, talking about our kids and how we have a different concept of how we can help them because being cut off from their teachers and their friends and their activities and their support system had a long-term effect. It was not just the short term in that moment, it still is with them today. And they had to trade their classroom for a computer screen. And the anxiety that some of these kids felt, especially in areas where there was a high rate of people contracting COVID, mostly our urban areas, mostly our communities of color. And one day a child is talking to grandma on the phone and the next day grandma's on a respirator never to be seen again by this child. That's not hypothetical. That's what I heard when I did round tables and listening sessions with kids across the state.

It's real – that fear and anxiety, the lack of security that they have now, is something bad going to happen to me again? Because what they witnessed, none of us ever had to endure as children when you're still being shaped and molded and understanding connections to other people. Their sense of security has been shattered.

And so, they saw their parents sometimes lose their jobs. Someone they loved, lost. And more than a quarter of a million kids lost a parent to COVID. They couldn't have foreseen that either. That's a lot of weight for a child to carry. Anxiety and depression have skyrocketed, and if we don't give them support now, it'll be irreversible. And it'll affect their ability, not just to get out of school, but also their ability to get a job later, and it'll ultimately lead a happy and fulfilling life.

So, when we fail our children now and don't give them the support now or the mental health services now, we are setting them up for a lifetime of dependency on others, that they'll need mental health services, perhaps the rest of their lives, if we don't nip it now. And that is the urgency that I sense and feel the people in this room share.

So again, this entire country's feeling the same way, but why can't New York be a national model in resolving this crisis? First of all, you acknowledge it's real. You can't sweep it under the rug. It exists. Our teachers will tell you that. Parents will tell you that. So why can't we be a model to talk about how we help kids who've lost ground, how we get back on track, and how we get them the mental health support that they never would've needed, perhaps. Some of children always have, but the majority wouldn't have needed this. And now perhaps the majority do need some support, an affirmation that they're going to be okay and teaching them coping skills that they may have lost during this one to two to three year period of uncertainty and fear.

So, we'll continue to make historic investments. Yes, it starts with investments, which is code word for money. Right? Historic investments? No administration in the State of New York has invested more in education and mental health than we have this year alone. And that commitment continues today.

That's why I'm proud to announce they we’ll make $108 million available to deal with pandemic learning loss and also expand mental health support system systems and services to our kids.

And of that funding – thank you. And of that funding, $100 million will go directly to school districts and BOCES to hire more teachers with specialized experience in managing and counteracting learning loss because we have to stop the hemorrhaging there. Also, pinpoint where children have fallen behind, how to get them specialized assistance to get caught up. The average student is four to five months behind right now. And all the strategies we need, and many of them are out there, we have to make it a holistic approach - look at the state in its entirety, and not just the school districts that are the haves versus the have nots that their kids are going to end up in a better place.

All of our kids have a right to have a healthy, strong educational foundation to prepare them for the world. We also are going to need more mental health professionals. We need a lot more, and that was a major theme of our Youth Mental Health Summit and the listening tour that preceded it. I was in the Bronx sitting with a group of teenagers and they told me about their very direct experiences, and I was a little surprised literally three years after really the worst of the pandemic and they've been back to school for some time, how they would tell you in their own words, “We're still feeling this. We wake up scared, not sure if there's going to be another pandemic. Is this going to happen again?” And they know they need services.

And to one young person I said, "Well, don't you go to your school counselor or mental health professional." She says, "There's one person in a school of 700. And if I sign up now, I might be able to get somebody to see me in a few months." Now, that's not serving our kids. That's a failure. So, we'll invest more money, allow for more hiring, bring in these professionals, help them on site. Don't send them home and say, "You should go see a therapist someday." That's probably not going to happen. Let them get support in school, supplemented by outside services. Of which we need a lot more of. So, I've made a vow to these kids as I sat there, said, "We'll do better." We're going to fix this. We're not going to leave you alone. We're not going to abandon you.

So, it was not something you expected when you were growing up, most of you, that you need a mental health professional in school, but school districts now need this. It's now as basic as having a reading or writing teacher. So, we want to have ways people can apply. School districts and BOCES can apply individually, can apply as a group. High need districts will get priority. Funding will be awarded over the next two years, and applications are due very soon, August 18th. They shouldn't take you long, just ask for a lot of money.

There is a criteria to follow, but know that in my heart, I have high expectations for this to work. I'll be analyzing this. I'll be wanting to see metrics and how we're going to measure success. Is it, was this the right strategy? I think it's a good start. If there's better ways to do it, I want to hear about it. We don't have all the answers sitting here today.

Let's look at what other states are doing, what's going on elsewhere, other countries. But ultimately, when we are done and we are successful, we will be that model that others will say, "I want to do it like New York did." Because they felt like every other state did, but they rose up quicker. We helped our kids sooner.

We didn't wait for them to start feeling the effects long-term in their lives. We captured them before they fell any further. And that's exactly what I want to do. And the remaining $8.3 million will go directly to expand school mental health clinics and the State will cover up to $25,000 of startup costs on school-based clinics. Clinics in economically disadvantaged areas will get an additional $20,000. So, when the kids are hit the hardest, we need to lift them up fastest.

And I want to make sure that we talk once again about our teachers - never, ever forget what they had to endure, whether it was showing up in a classroom with still fear and anxiety, just six feet apart. And anytime one of them went down, the class had to go away for 10 days, then come back again. And it was just so, so hard. And those who tried to be teaching it remotely, wow. It was an effort. We didn't really turn out that well because so many, so many kids didn't even have the connection, the digital device to get them connected to their teacher in their classrooms.

But when we asked the teachers to do what they could do, they delivered day in and day out. They delivered for us. They help so many kids and they've had to do so much more. Sometimes they're a parent, sometimes they're a social worker, sometimes they're a therapist, sometimes they're just a friend. Our kids need a lot, and our teachers have been overworked, overburdened, and understandably burned out, and they need our support now as well. And that's a major part of our announcement to help our teachers too.

Some of them are still coming to grips with what they had to endure. And so, the phrase “getting back to normal” sounds good. It's aspirational though because we're not there yet. This is just a first step, and when kids fell behind, you cannot assume that they'll automatically catch up on their own. And the only way to talk about this is look at the cold hard facts.

The numbers are declining. Let's accept that, but it's not too late to do something right now, and let's continue writing a legacy. A legacy where people know we care deeply about our kids - always have, always will. I've raised a couple of kids. I know the struggles. Teenage daughter, even got through that. She turned out okay. I have a wonderful family. I'm blessed. But they had a good public school. Two parents at home, parents could bring in enough money to buy them the new set of sneakers and the books, backpack, and now I'm blessed with the grandchild. A lot of families don't have those, all those things that I had, so I'll never take for granted what I had.

But also, I want to make sure that every other child in the state of New York has the same advantages, so they can look up someday and say, “Maybe, maybe I, too, can be a governor.” I want little kids to think like that. I want them to know there's no limit to what they can do. But right now, as adults, we have to surround them with love and compassion and a vision that believes in each and every single one of them and says, “We’re going to get you through this.”

We are the adults in the room. It is time for us to act and we're starting today. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And speaking of teachers and their incredible representatives, I want us to give a warm welcome to Melinda Person, what she has done already in her short tenure, but she knows the job she's been in the trenches a long time, fighting for teachers because when you're fighting for teachers, you're fighting for kids.

It's the same. They are together. Our teachers could go into any profession - they're obviously educated themselves. When they choose to go into something like this, something that most of us would be too faint of heart to attempt. I know that we have a lifetime of gratitude for what teachers have done, and I want to thank you for representing all of our friends and members of SUT, Melinda Person.