The Role of U.S. K-12 Schools in Protecting and Promoting Students' Mental Health

Dear Colleagues,

Young people in the U.S. are experiencing an explosive growth in mental health challenges. A variety of school practices are theorized to harm or improve youth mental health outcomes. The body of research evidence relating these practices to mental health is growing, but has not kept pace with the speed of social and policy change, nor with the needs of education policymaker seeking to protect and enhance youth mental health. Political debates continue, and must be informed by rigorous research. This Special Issue thus seeks to center schools as a critical arbiter of youth mental health outcomes, and to answer a timely question: what policies should schools implement (and what policies should they avoid) to protect and enhance U.S. K-12 student mental health?

We thus seek to elevate recent scholarly advances relating common school practices and policies to youth mental health outcomes via this Special Issue, to be published in the journal Education Sciences (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/about).

We welcome manuscripts that leverage a variety of methodological approaches—including qualitative and quantitative methods—so long as they are employed rigorously. We also welcome scholarship from a variety of disciplinary traditions (including, but not limited to, public health, psychology, education, sociology, economics, and public policy).

We are particularly eager to publish research that:

• Explores experiences with, correlates of, or impacts of widely utilized k-12 policies and practices, such as
  1. anti-bullying initiatives,
  2. culturally responsive pedagogy,
  3. digital device limits,
  4. exclusionary discipline,
  5. physical activity/play opportunities,
  6. positive behavioral interventions and supports,
  7. restorative practices,
  8. mental health care provided by or in the school (whether personal or virtual)
  9. policing in schools,
  10. social and emotional learning, and
  11. tracking/ability grouping
• Centers students’ mental health experiences and/or students’ mental health outcomes
• Is rooted in theory, practical guidance, conceptual frameworks, psychobiological literature, or causal logics that clearly articulate why a given school policy or practice is expected to relate to student mental health (in other words, we are not interested in research that explores merely speculative relationships)
• Is designed to provide immediately actionable policy insights (in other words, is structured to provide, and does provide, insight regarding how educational leaders and policymakers should evolve their practices in light of the findings of the research)

We thank you for your work on, and look forward to receiving and reviewing submissions regarding, this critically important topic.

Submission Deadline for Abstracts: Friday, 29 August 2025

Typically, only manuscripts that have received abstract approval will be considered. Authors who have not received abstract approval, and would like to solicit consideration, should email seandh@berkeley.edu no later than Friday, October 17 (three weeks before the submission deadline) with a draft of their manuscript and a cover letter indicating why they believe their manuscript is an excellent fit to be included in this Special Issue.

Dr. Sean Darling-Hammond
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• K-12 school practices
• student mental health
• public health
• psychology
• public policy