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The portion of American hospital beds occupied by children with suicidal or self-harming behavior has soared over the course of a decade, a large study of admissions to acute care hospitals shows.

An analysis of 4,767,840 pediatric hospitalizations by researchers at Dartmouth, published on Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA, found that between 2009 and 2019, mental health hospitalizations increased by 25.8 percent and cost $1.37 billion.

The study did not include psychiatric hospitals, or reflect the years of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that it is a considerable undercount.

Especially striking was the rise in suicidal behavior as a cause: The portion of pediatric mental health hospitalizations involving suicidal or self-harming behavior rose to 64.2 percent in 2019, from 30.7 percent in 2009. As a proportion of overall pediatric hospitalizations, suicidal behavior rose to 12.7 percent in 2019 from 3.5 percent in 2009.

Though the rise in suicidal behavior among American youths is well-established, the study underlines the gaping inadequacies in our health system, said Dr. Gabrielle A. Carlson, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Stony Brook University medical school, who was not involved in the new study.

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Landon Starbuck, Founder

Teen overdose deaths have doubled in three years, an alarming trend amid a historic decline in drug and alcohol use among high school students.

The main reason is fentanyl. Teens consume the powerful opioid unwittingly, packaged in counterfeit pills tailored to resemble less potent prescription medications. Drug traffickers lace pills with fentanyl to boost the black-market high. Dangerously addictive, fentanyl can be lethal, especially to children experimenting with drugs.

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WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Busloads of mothers and fathers descended on Congress Wednesday to protest a bill the GOP says would give parents more say over their kids’ education. Those who showed up believe the bill is about politics, not education.

“We’re very concerned about a parents’ Bill of Rights that has been created for us without us,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union.

The Federal Parents Bill of Rights Act, which is set for a vote in the House of Representatives this week, would direct educators to publicly post the curriculum for each school. It would also require schools to notify parents and guardians of their rights — like the ability to review their school’s curriculum and budget.

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Lynn Shaw of Lynn’s Warriors Calls for Open and Honest Discussio

CHATHAM, NJ — There is hope that legislation to protect children and teenagers from online predators will come this year. In the meantime, parents and their children need to start communicating about the dangers they face in the current digital world.

Lynn Shaw of Lynn’s Warriors called on those attending the “Protecting Children and Teens in Our Digital World” event to come together as a community, take action and start the “open and honest conversation” with their children about the digital manipulation they face on Wednesday night in the Lundt Meeting Room at the Library of the Chathams.

Shaw explains in the video below how she decided to become a “warrior” with a goal of “Ending slavery and sexual exploitation by raising awareness through media and grassroots mobilization, advocacy, education and policy.”

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WASHINGTON, D. C. – The FBI launched at least 25 investigations of threats to school boards after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a 2021 memorandum instructing it to address the issue, but none of the probes resulted in federal charges, according to a new interim report from U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government.

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Texas mom Laura Maria Gruber always considered herself a “woke” liberal in favor of progressive causes, even sending her young daughter to a charter school that celebrates “diversity, equity and inclusion,” according to the school’s web site.

But she never thought her 13-year-old would be asked to play a “seducing hooker” in a bizarre classroom game.

“I picked my daughter and her best friend up from school and my daughter said ‘We played this game at school, Mom, and you’re going to be upset,’” Gruber told The Post Saturday from her home in San Antonio.

“When she told me about kids getting up in class and posing as hookers, I almost crashed the car.”

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