A story in the Eagle’s Education for the Future special section Tuesday highlights an urgent need for schools in Butler County and across the state: more social workers.

Much has been written on this page and covered by our news staff on the opioid scourge of recent years, and the numerous lives drug addiction has claimed.

Less focus has been spent by community leaders and public officials on how this crisis has indirectly affected those it touches — especially schoolchildren traumatized by day-to-day contact with family members struggling with addiction.

We spoke to administrators at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV (MIU), which serves Butler County’s public school districts, who told us they’ve been working with schools to respond to the increasing demands for social workers.

Recently, schools are reporting dramatic increases in the number of students with mental health and behavioral issues. This increase has resulted in limited resources.

“We must address the social emotional needs of children as well as the academic,” said Bryda Drumm, who is currently the MIU’s only social worker.

Drumm spends much of her time training school staff on everything from suicide and child abuse prevention to human trafficking.

The MIU said it has seen an increased number of children with some sort of trauma in their lives, but most school districts are not adequately equipped to handle behavioral problems.

National studies back up this assertion. An American Civil Liberties Union study from 2019 discovered widespread understaffing of mental health workers at schools.

The study found that federal and state governments have increased the amount of money spent on adding police officers to schools in the wake of mass shootings, but often at the expense of hiring more psychologists, social workers or counselors.

While it’s obviously important to beef up school security — we’ve often praised local schools for making their facilities safer from threats — it’s important for districts to obtain resources that get to the root of troubled behavior.

Shockingly, the MIU has reported an increase in the suspensions and expulsions of children as young as 3 to 5 years old.

Clearly, more needs to be done to address this issue.

The MIU is doing important work, but it can’t handle the task alone. The Butler School Board plans to hire social workers this year, and the MIU is having discussions with districts about sharing the costs for a social worker who would split time between schools.

This is a good idea. We hope school districts consider teaming up with the MIU to get the resources they need.