When counselor Lydia McNeiley greeted the eighth graders returning to Charles N. Scott Middle School in Hammond, Indiana, this August, she couldn’t believe how tall they looked. “They’ve grown a foot since the last time I saw them,” says McNeiley, who—like school counseling staff across the country—had to do most of her work online last year.

Virtual check-ins had their limits. And, of course, because students had been living through a global pandemic, their needs were greater than ever. Parents lost jobs, families lost homes, and far too many children lost loved ones. That’s a lot for developing brains to process, she notes, especially while physically separated from friends and other support networks.

So, along with their backpacks and growth spurts, students