The trauma of Hurricane Harvey continues to affect students in HISD and across the Houston area, HISD Superintendent Richard Carranza told a behavioral health collaborative on Friday.

Representatives from more than 20 school districts gathered at the Center for School Behavioral Health collaborative luncheon at the United Way for an update on what HISD is doing to meet the mental health needs of students and teachers in the wake of the hurricane.

HISD Superintendent Carranza spoke about how critically important social and emotional services are to ensure that students are ready to learn.

“As a teacher and a principal, I saw first-hand the challenges of poverty, homelessness, violence, and incarceration on a high school,” he said. “The most important thing teachers can ask before they start teaching is, ‘How are the students doing today?'”

The Center for School Behavioral Health works to identify, intervene, and treat students. They bring together school districts and some 80 nonprofit and government behavioral health providers, advocates, parents, and legislative representatives five times a year to facilitate partnerships that can provide services to school communities.

The center and its community partners have been providing trainings to help HISD teachers and students cope with residual trauma from Hurricane Harvey.