Students from kindergarten through high school are experiencing pandemic-related stress that has impacted their mental health and capacity to learn. School shutdowns and virtual learning have isolated learners from peers and teachers. And these closures have rendered extracurricular activities inaccessible.
This perfect storm of disease-driven adversity underscores students’ need for mental health care.
With the current unemployment rate still far above pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, school-age students face financial instability and food insecurity. Families that already lived at the edge of a fiscal precipice are especially at risk. Meanwhile, reliance on virtual learning has challenged young people to adopt a level of self-direction that, in many cases, is far beyond their ability.
This perfect storm of disease-driven adversity underscores students’ need for mental health care. But across the country, school-based psychology professionals are in short supply. And students of color, in particular, suffer disproportionally because they cannot rely on school counselors to help them cope with discrimination-related trauma.
To support these students in getting the mental health services they need, Congress, state governors and legislators, and the Biden Administration should commit to dramatically increasing funding for hiring school counselors.
Nationwide, 1.7 million students attend schools with police officers but no counselors at all, according to a recent American Civil Liberties Union report. The American School Counselor Association recommends each counselor have a caseload of no more than 250 students, but the national average ratio of pupils to counselors was more than 400-to-one in 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available.
By advocating a trauma-informed approach to discipline that discourages criminalizing the misbehavior of students of color, school counselors can divert young people from the school-to-prison pipeline.
Dr. Vivian Robledo-Shorey, director of student services and minority affairs for the Bethlehem Area School District in Pennsylvania, stresses the importance of school counselors, who “are in a unique position to disrupt that pipeline and to disrupt racism.”
For students of color who are first-generation college applicants, school counselors can also supplement families’ efforts to help young people develop their post-high school potential.
For students of color who are first-generation college applicants, school counselors can also supplement families’ efforts to help young people develop their post-high school potential. They can turn to school counselors for guidance on writing application essays, taking standardized entrance exams, and securing financial aid.
“The families of more affluent students often provide the support and experiences to help their children become successful,” Dr. Lynn Linde, chief knowledge and learning officer for the American Counseling Association, tells The Progressive in an email. “In communities of color, the school may need to play this role when the family is unable to do so, such as in cases where they lack knowledge of navigating higher education, career planning, or are too busy supporting the family to be involved with the school. The counselors are able to help students look beyond what they see to understand the expanse of opportunities.”
Congress has recently taken steps to address racial inequity in education by legislating increased funding to hire school counselors. Members of the House Committee on Education and Labor are considering H.R. 614, which would establish a small-scale program to demonstrate the efficacy of using federal dollars to hire more counselors in struggling Title I high schools.
Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California,introduced the bill, whose aim is to decrease the dropout rates at historically under-resourced schools. The legislation follows previous stalled bills, such as the 2019 Elementary and Secondary Counseling Act that proposed allocating$2 billion in federal grants to increase staffing in public school mental health departments.
Similarly, the Mental Health in Schools Excellence Program of 2019—which was introduced by Repre sentative Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania—sought to increase the number of psychological service providers assisting students. The bill directed the U.S. Department of Education to pay part of the tuition of graduate students planning to work in school-based mental health centers after earning their degrees.
Both pieces of legislation, unfortunately, died in committee. But now, amid the ongoing pandemic and the inequalities that its laid bare, Congressional representatives should take advantage of the opportunity to introduce similar legislation during the current session.
Governors also have the chance to support students of color by allocating state and federal money to school counseling programs. In March 2020, the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act established the Governors’ Emergency Education Relief Fund, or GEER, of nearly $3 billion. Since then, several states have used GEER money to improve school-based mental health services.
Utah designated GEER funding for assisting special education students, including providing mental wellness services, and support for social-emotional learning, according to the National Governors Association. North Carolina allocated $40 million of its GEER money to hire school counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses.
States can also use non-federal money to enhance mental wellness support for students of color. Virginia’s 2020 budget included $99 million to employ more school counselors at elementary and secondary schools, according to the American Counseling Association. The goal is to reach ratios of 250 students to one school counselor statewide after three years. (The existing ratios in Virgnia are 300 high school students to each counselor, 325 middle school students per counselor, and 375 children per counselor at the elementary level.)
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which became law in December 2020, adds approximately $4 billion to the GEER Fund. The Act requires about $1.3 billion to go to states with previously approved GEER funding. Governors should support school counseling programs in hiring mental health professionals to provide equitable services to students of color. The American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed into law in March included a $122 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. The plan encourages, but does not mandate, using some of the money to hire additional school counselors. Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan provides $100 billion to improve existing public schools and construct new ones. It also includes $400 billion to increase care for elders and people with disabilities. The plan should also invest in hiring public school counselors.
The Biden Administration should shoulder responsibility for funding an increase in school counselors. While campaigning, President Biden promised to double the number of school-based mental health workers and nurses. But so far, that promise has yet to materialize.
When announcing his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, Biden called on on Congress to allocate $130 billion to assist K-12 schools with reopening. In addition to reducing class sizes so students can socially distance, and hiring more custodians, the funding could increase the staff of school-based mental health centers.
“Districts must ensure that funds are used to not only reopen schools, but also to meet students’ academic, mental health and social, and emotional needs in response to COVID-19 . . . wherever they are learning,” stated a White House announcement of the plan on January 20. 2021.
Leadership from the Biden Administration could mean that Congress and governors will, at last, fund the hiring of mental health workers to improve equity of treatment and opportunity for students of color in K-12 schools.