Kids received mental health treatment in record numbers after pandemic, records show

MedicalXpress | Jul 09, 2026

When schools closed in the spring of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children and adolescents receiving mental health treatment in the United States fell by more than half. By 2022, that number had not only rebounded, it exceeded pre-pandemic levels, according to a new national study by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine.