Schools’ Role in Mental-Health Care Uneven, Experts Say

A raft of evidence suggests that screening children for mental-health problems as early as the primary school years and providing appropriate support can help alleviate poor school performance, bullying, depression, and suicide—all far more common than school shootings.

Such screening programs could also catch the rare students who might be considering violent action and steer them into appropriate services, school-based mental-health professionals say. But those programs aren’t as widespread as they should be, they add.

The April 16 killings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., have renewed calls for schools to help play a role in identifying students in need of mental-health services...