Baton Rouge students want a say in the support their schools provide
A survey of more than 500 East Baton Rouge students finds a wide gap between the mental health challenges they see and the help they believe schools provide. Many also say they are willing to speak directly to local leaders.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Students are asking local leaders to listen as well as act. In the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students’ fifth annual Youth Voice Report, more than half of the middle and high school respondents said they would attend or speak at a school board meeting if given the opportunity. Sixty-five percent said the same about a Metro Council meeting.
Their concerns extend beyond classroom instruction. Eighty-one percent said mental health challenges affect them or their peers, while just 33% said their school provides adequate mental health support. Students also identified safety and teacher support among the issues they most want local leaders to address. The findings reflect students’ perceptions; they do not, by themselves, measure how many students have a mental health condition or establish which services individual schools offer.
The report draws on responses from more than 500 students across East Baton Rouge. It points to another gap leaders can address: Students who could identify their school board representative were nearly three times as likely to say the board cares about them as those who could not — 65.2% compared with 22.5%. The survey shows an association, but does not establish that knowing a representative causes students to feel heard.
Adonica Pelichet Duggan, CEO of the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students, said the findings offer leaders a blueprint for keeping students’ needs at the center of decisions. For school officials, the immediate questions are practical ones: Can students find help when they need it, and will they have a meaningful chance to tell decision-makers where support falls short?
Read the full report: The Baton Rouge Alliance for Students’ 2026 Youth Voice Report includes additional student responses and recommendations for local leaders.
