Hi. I'm Dr. Dan Nicklas, and I want to welcome you to this course in providing emotional, behavioral, and special education services in school. In this course, you will meet two of our psychologists, Dr. Lisa Costello and Dr. Katherine Walcott, who will cover social emotional health in school-age children. Social emotional health refers to how students form relationships and manage their emotions to succeed in school. Social emotional health is similar to mental health, and both terms will be used throughout this course. You will learn about the relationship between social emotional skills, mental health, and learning. We hope you will take away information about how schools can promote social emotional learning and positive mental health outcomes for all students. In other courses in school health, we have covered how conditions such as ADHD and learning disabilities can affect students. It is likely than in your daily life, you've heard about a lot of topics that are tied to students' mental health such as bullying, suicide, and school violence. Public schools in the United States often take a multilayered approach to promoting social emotional learning and addressing students' mental health needs. As you'll learn in this course, schools focus on how students' social emotional or mental health needs affect their academic performance and relationships in school. Unlike doctors or other clinicians, schools are less focused on medical or mental health diagnoses when deciding what supports students need. This course will give you the tools to understand how schools approach social emotional skill development and promote student mental health. The first part of the course will focus on why social emotional learning and mental health are relevant topics to address in our school health specialization. We will then explain that schools use multiple levels of support to address mental health needs in the school setting. The course will highlight prevention strategies, targeted and intensive interventions, and individualized plans that are developed to support student success. As we walk you through these approaches, we will present two case studies to help you apply information that you're learning. As you begin this course, keep in mind that if you or someone you know is in emotional distress and needs immediate support, you can call the lifeline at 1- 800- 273-TALK or 8255. The lifeline is a national resource that provides 24/7 free and confidential emotional support to people in emotional distress or those experiencing a mental health crisis. Let's get started.