The Consequences Of School Cuts

Karl Soderholm is a psychologist for the Bridgeport public school system. The Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools John Ramos are weighing massive cuts for the next school year including layoffs to school psychologists. Soderholm, in an essay, shares his frustration about what these cuts could mean to school kids.

Musings from a Bridgeport School Psychologist to the Bridgeport Community,

All year, I’ve had to balance the time spent alleviating student crises with the time needed to both to unravel the complex causes of student difficulties and to facilitate the individualized solutions for these difficulties. The more than 100 Planning and Placement Team meetings I participated in, and often helped to facilitate, were outnumbered tenfold by my informal meetings with students, parents, and teachers. Perhaps, it was due to this schedule that I didn’t begin to hear the budget rumblings until the start of June.

I optimistically believed that if all of us in the teachers’ union accepted a total pay freeze then we would be able to prevent the layoffs that would dramatically impact student learning. I realized I was wrong, as I started hearing about extreme cuts in support services. The first cut I heard of related to Guidance Counselors. I wanted to dismiss this as a rumor. They couldn’t really fire 1/2 of the guidance counselors could they? The Guidance Counselors provide so much support for a student body that has so many needs. Beyond counseling, they often lead both Student Assistance Teams and 504 team meetings. From my perspective, I started thinking how much more difficult the school psychologist job would become in Bridgeport. We would likely need to lead more Student Assistance Teams and 504 Teams (especially with the impact of the recent law changes increasing the mandate in both of these areas) and we would need to fit in more counseling somehow. “Perhaps,” I thought, “if the school social workers could also take upon more Guidance Counselor responsibilities, together, we could prevent these cuts from severely harming students.”

But then I heard that the budget included a more than 30% reduction in the School Social Work staff!?! This means that social workers would not be able to help the school psychologists plug the gaping holes that would be created by the reduction in Guidance Counselors. Instead the social workers wouldn’t even be able to adequately provide their essential services to students. The school psychologist would need to fit in more time to conduct Functional Behavioral Analyses and Behavioral Intervention Plans, they would need to do more crisis services, and they would need make more phone calls to outside support agencies and networks. Additionally, the school psychologists would possibly need to add more intensive historical family focused information to the student assessment to make up for the reduction in Social Developmental Histories that could be conducted. I thought, “The district can’t seriously be thinking of cutting that many counselors all at once. This will cause a reduction in safety in our schools and it will create an increase in both costly Out-of-District placements and costly legal fees.”

As overwhelming as this information was, the school psychologist in me started analyzing the information for possible solutions. Perhaps we could reduce some of the need for mandated counseling, by helping special education teachers provide a more therapeutic environment for special education students. It would involve training and would likely reduce some the academic focus that our special education teachers have, but if the psychologists work with the special education administrators to train those teachers and work with them regarding specific students, we might be able to at least prevent dangerous situations and reduce situations where we cannot meet legal mandates. But, I heard next that Special Education administrative support personnel are also being cut. So who is going to help special education teachers learn to deal with our emotionally and behaviorally challenged students while relying less on social work support. “I guess that would again fall on the school psychologist,” I thought. However, I knew it would be unrealistic to expect the school psychologist to add so much more onto a plate that is already full.

Again, trying to remain solution focused, I thought, “Perhaps, if other staff can commit to perform some of our current responsibilities, the school psychologists can be more effective in their attempts to plug the various holes being left by these brutal cuts. Only school psychologists can administer the mandated psychological assessments, and the counseling, crisis services, staff consultation, connections with outside providers, Behavior Plans, and the Student Assistance Team, PPT and 504 services we provide generally can only be replaced by the above counseling staff. But the school psychologists had also been taking the lead in helping the district adapt to the changes in educational law for all students regarding Progress Monitoring and Scientific Research Based Interventions (SRBI). Who else in the district has the education to lead in this mandated area? Well, perhaps with training the Literacy department could lead the progress monitoring, data analysis, and SBRI regarding reading and writing. Also, with training, the Numeracy department may be able to spearhead the Math progress monitoring and SRBI, allowing the psychologists to focus on monitoring and SRBI regarding behavioral and social/emotional difficulties only.

I thought, “Perhaps, if Reading and Literacy step up, work to get trained, and fully take some of our responsibility, and if special education teachers are receptive to their new role and enthusiastically embrace it, and if all the other Guidance Counselors and Social Workers rise up above the frustration of the situation and do even more of the incredible inspiring work than they do now, then perhaps the school psychologists can work harder than ever to both complete all of their legal mandates and prevent some of the Out of District costs and legal costs that will ensue from these far-reaching cuts.” But then, I heard that school psychologists are also being cut by more than 25%, and I lost that unrealistic hope.

Please do not allow these drastic cuts to occur. I have a wonderful imagination and I consider myself an optimist, but I cannot even imagine how Bridgeport Public Schools can lose this many guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists all at once and not face serious consequences both financially and regarding student safety.