Desperate to help record numbers of children suffering anxiety and depression, state and local governments are testing new interventions to get to the root of the crisis — even if they don’t know what that is.

State and local governments across the country are scrambling to find new strategies to slow an epidemic of kids’ mental illness that exploded during the pandemic.

But there’s a problem: No one knows what’s causing the spike. Even after the isolation and fear Covid wrought dissipated, levels of anxiety and depression remain sky high.