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Alaska's Young Family Network

Our Mission is to help families and professionals work together as full partners, so that they can improve the systems of care &emdash; at both the local and state levels &emdash; for children who have a mental disorder.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to identify all children age 3
    to 18 who have a disability regardless of cause or degree of disability that can be benefited by special
    education. All students with mental disorders will qualify.

• 20 percent of the children have a diagnosable mental disorder.
• 9 percent of all students have enough disability to qualify as seriously emotionally disturbed.
• 13 percent of those ages 7 to 17 have enough disability to qualify as seriously emotionally disturbed.
• after puberty 30 percent of the students will suffer from the winter blues or depression.

  Ask your school for their statistics.

When there is a quality assurance review of your mental health services ask them for a comparison between your community and other commnuities around the state. That information is available from their computerized management information system. You will find that there are big differences between communities