The other, critical NC education shortage: school psychologists

On the eve of the new school year North Carolina education officials are worried about a teacher shortage, but there’s another shortfall that’s not getting enough attention: a lack of school psychologists.

Along with learning loss, the pandemic caused an increase in anxiety and depression among children.

“It is a big issue. It’s a worsening crisis. There are soaring rates of mental health challenges,” Elizabeth Hudgins, executive director of the North Carolina Pediatric Society, told me.

Now, a new 50-state report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation offers a sharper measure of mental stress among children across the nation and in North Carolina.

The report found: “Children across the country were more likely to encounter anxiety or depression during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis than previously, with the national figure jumping 26%, from 9.4% of children ages 3–17 to 11.8% between 2016 and 2020, the year COVID-19 swept across the country.”

In North Carolina, the report says 9.7 percent of high school students attempted suicide in the year previous to the pandemic’s arrival in 2020, with the numbers spiking higher for LGBQT teens and mixed race and Hispanic children. Those rates, based on the latest figures available, have almost surely risen during the stress and disruption of the pandemic.

Despite this urgent situation, North Carolina’s legislature has not done enough to boost the number of psychologists to meet a larger population of children feeling emotional and mental stress.

A state-by-state report card on youth mental health issued this year by the organization Hopeful Futures ranks North Carolina 42nd nationally. One reason for the low grade is that North Carolina has one school psychologist for every 2,527 students (the recommended ratio is 1:500).

The General Assembly allocated an additional $10 million to provide at least one school psychologists for every school district, but the spending comes after years of underfunding put North Carolina well behind the recommended ratio of psychologists to students and well below pay levels in most states. In North Carolina, school psychologists are paid an average of $65,000. The national average is $85,000.

In addition to the pay issue, the state’s universities are not producing enough school psychologists. The State Board of Education requested $4.4 million to expand a school psychologist intern program, but the request was not funded. That’s a truly callous false economy when the state has a $6 billion surplus.

Robert Taylor, deputy superintendent for district and school support services at the state Department Public Instruction, said the number of school psychologists is ”woefully short of what we need.”

The shortage of psychologists is further complicated by how they work. Most spend 90 percent of their time evaluating children who may need special education. That leaves little time for general counseling.

Taylor said, “There’s a problem with bandwidth,” a problem that’s been “amplified” as students’ mental health needs have increased. Teams of teachers, social workers and counselors can help troubled children, he said, but there are also shortages in those job categories.

The ability of North Carolina schools – particularly those in rural areas – to help students was hobbled before the pandemic. Now the gap between the need for care and the ability to provide will be wider than ever and thousands more children will fall through it.

The governor and the legislature should take major steps now to bring more psychologists into the schools and more children out of danger. Raise pay enough to bring psychologists out of retirement and keep others from going to work in other states. Then invest in university training programs that will produce more psychologists who can help children burdened by stress and anxiety.

Correction: An earlier version of this column misidentified the deputy superintendent for district and school support services. His name is Robert Taylor, not William Taylor.

This story was originally published August 12, 2022 at 4:30 AM.