School leaders and educators across Kansas say that mental health issues are affecting children and youth and hindering learning. A new national report from Mental Health America provides insight on the scope of the problem, how Kansas compares to other states, and trends over time.

The report shows significant numbers of young Kansans are struggling with issues that can make learning more difficult. These issues include depression and substance abuse and have increased over the past five years. 

These results are from the annual State of Mental Health in America report, which ranks the states on measures of adult and youth mental health and services. The 2024 report gives Kansas a Youth Ranking of 16th, better overall than neighboring states. The Kansas Adult Ranking is 24th.

At least two factors are commonly cited by educators and other experts as impacting youth mental health over this period. These include the coronavirus pandemic beginning in 2020 and the impact of technology such as screen time and social media. 

It is important to note that this report is mostly drawing on survey data from 2022 and does not show changes that may have occurred since then, when Kansas and other states were coming out of the pandemic. The measures used to rank states were changed for the 2024 report so not all of them were presented in previous annual reports. Most of the trends that were previously reported worsened since in the 2021 report, which was based on 2017-18 survey data.

Students Flourishing 

Kansas ranks very high (5th) on the percentage of youth ages 6-17 considered “flourishing,” meaning a child shows interest and curiosity in learning new things, works to finish tasks they start, and stays calm and in control when faced with a challenge." Kansas had 63 percent meet that definition. The national average was 60.5 percent.

Mental Health Coverage

Kansas is among the highest states in private insurance coverage to treat mental or emotional problems. Only 3.9 percent of Kansas youth with private insurance lacked such coverage, ranking 3rd. Nationally, the percentage is 5.6 percent. This is an improvement from the 2021 report when the number of Kansas youth with private insurance not covering mental health was at 7.9 percent. The national average also declined but not as much as the Kansas rate, from 7.8 percent to 5.6 percent.

Depression

According to the report, 20.3 percent of Kansas youth aged 12-17 had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. That means approximately 50,000 students experienced periods of at least 2 weeks with a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities and had a majority of specified depression symptoms. Kansas is close to the national average (20.2 percent), with a ranking of 27th. These numbers do not include students under age 12.

Of Kansas youth with a major depression episode, 66.7 percent did NOT receive mental health services to address their symptoms. That’s significantly worse than the national average of 54.5 percent, with Kansas ranking 44th.

The percentage of Kansas youth with a major depressive episode increased from 15 percent to 20.3 percent, resulting in an estimated 15,000 additional Kansas youth in this category. The national average increased slightly more, from 13.8 percent to 20.2 percent.

The percentage of these youth who did not receive mental health services increased from 54.7 percent to 66.7 percent, meaning there are not only more students with serious depression but also more students not receiving treatment. Nationally, the percentage decreased from 59.6 to 56.1 percent.

About 13.1 percent of Kansas youth experienced serious thoughts of suicide. That is slightly better than the U.S. average of 13.2 percent. Kansas ranked 18th.

Substance Abuse

Over 8.8 percent of Kansas students reported a substance abuse disorder, including drug or alcohol abuse, affecting an estimated 22,000 students. That’s slightly below the national average of 8.95 percent, with Kansas ranking 22nd. The percentage of youth with substance abuse disorders more than doubled from 3.6 percent to 8.1 percent. The national average increased at about the same rate, from 3.8 percent to 9.0 percent.

Special Education

Kansas ranked low (35th) in the number of K-12 students identified with emotional disturbance in a special education Individualized Education Program (IEP). Kansas had 4.94 students per thousand with an IEP for emotional disturbance, well below the U.S. average of 6.67 per thousand. The report indicates this statistic is a measure of how many students with emotional needs are being served through special education. 

The percentage of K-12 students with an IEP for serious emotional disturbance dropped from 5.5 per 1,000 to 4.9 per thousand. That means fewer students are receiving such services, even though indicators of needs are increasing. Although the national average is higher, it declined even more, from 7.6 percent to 6.7 percent.