North Carolina High Schoolers Show Improvements in Mental Health

After years of focus on behavioral health following the pandemic’s toll on young people, the 2025 North Carolina High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows students are doing better. The share of high schoolers who felt so sad or hopeless they stopped normal activities for at least two weeks dropped to 29.7% — down from a high of 43% in 2021. The percentage who seriously considered attempting suicide fell to 11.4%, the lowest in a 20-year period, from 22.3% in 2021. Social media use declined 4.5% over two years, aided by a new classroom cell-phone restriction law, while alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and vaping use all continued downward. State officials say the work is far from over: 14% of students needed counseling but didn’t get it, and 23 school districts still have zero full-time school psychologists. North Carolina has drawn $29 million in federal mental-health grants to recruit more counselors and fund stipends for psychologist interns in high-need and rural districts.

NC Newsline