Some kids are languishing in hospitals for as many as 700 days.
Read MoreTexas Observer: Closing the Gap – Seeking Better Care for Foster Kids in Texas
Reyna Mondragon grips her hands together as she speaks into the microphone. The dimple on her left cheek shows up as she punctuates her words. It is a Wednesday morning in mid-March and she’s sitting at one of the Texas Capitol’s oak tables on the floor of the Senate chamber, where the Committee on Health and Human Services meets when the Senate isn’t in session. Lobbyists, reporters, legislative staffers and those here to testify stand against the brass railing or sit at senators’ desks.
Read MoreChronicle of Social Change: Data Analytics, Prevention Efforts Could Drive Down Child Deaths
Texas is taking serious steps toward using predictive data analytics, or “big data,” to prevent child deaths due to abuse and neglect.
Read MoreSchool counselors in AISD feel the effects of state-wide budget cuts
Wanda Montemayor spends her workday monitoring 12 and 13 year olds. As one of three school counselors at O. Henry Middle School, it is her responsibility to care for the social, emotional, and educational well being of 410 seventh graders in the Austin Independent School District.
In a normal week, Montemayor is responsible for booking at least two parent/teacher/student conferences a week, attending three administrative staff meetings a week and working with other school staff to create next year’s master class schedule each spring. She also fields around 20 phone calls a day (which she is expected to return no later than 48 hours) and holds the occasional schedule information night for parents.
That is only half of her week.
Many school counselors in AISD are preoccupied with managing their student’s academic needs and do not get the opportunity to counsel students’ mental and emotional health.
“I know a lot of school counselors where they have so much duty that’s not counseling duty but ‘School System Support’ we like to call it. Lunch duty,” Montemayor says. “They’re stuck doing lunch duty instead of counseling. It’s really harmful. It’s really hard for kids to get that support and that need.”
This is becoming even more prevalent throughout AISD with the recent state education budget cuts.
The Texas Legislature cut $4 billion from the public school educational budget for the 2011-2012 school year. AISD lost more than $11 million dollars to its general budget, which resulted in an almost $2 million decrease in AISD’s guidance and counseling budget.
Montemayor says the budget cuts have resulted in administrative counselor and school counselor job cuts. Before the slash this year, there were four administrative counselors who oversaw counselors at the school level. There was a counselor for Elementary School, Middle School, High School and one that oversaw all special services offered at school, such as Special Education and mentoring programs. After the cuts, there are only two administrators that school counselors can turn to for guidance.
It is Special Service Specialist Laura Gold’s job to work with school counselors as a social worker for instances where students need more support than the counselor can provide on their own
“They’ve been kind of left to themselves. They’ve felt like it’s been really challenging for them because they’ve had more work placed upon them this year because of the budget cuts,” says Gold.
Before the budget cuts there were 20 social workers like Gold providing support to students and school counselors. Now, they’ve been cut back to 12 social workers, who are each working with 10-12 schools to provide support for counselors, school administrative staff and students.
“It’s become extremely challenging to do what we need to do with some of our campuses,” she says.
Each individual school campus in the district determines how and where it cut spending for this year. Some schools cut teacher positions or extra-curricular activities. Other schools have cut counselor jobs to allow for more teacher positions.
Of the 200 counselors employed by AISD, 79 of them are the only counselors at their school, and some have to split their time working at two different schools.
The American School Counselor’s Association recommends that one counselor cares for every 250 students. But the 2010-2011 U.S. Census results show that Texas already had an average of 437 students to every counselor last year.
Michael Kaprelian is the president of the Texas Association for School Counselors. He says the average number of students per counselor is rising.
This year Kaprelian estimates that the average counselor in Texas is serving around 450 students.
There are simply not enough counselors to go around. And as the AISD’s projected 2012-2013 budget continues to drop in numbers, there is a danger of losing even more counseling positions.
“Counselors do such vital work in the schools,” he says. “We’re very concerned about what has happened.”
Russell Lyday is one of three full-time counselors (and only two of these positions are actually licensed counselors) at AISD’s Small Middle School. He was recently notified that the school is cutting a counseling position next year to create space for an Assistant Principal. He says that Martin and Pierce Middle Schools have also been told that each school will be losing one of two counselors next year.
Lyday currently cares for 300 students. Next year, he says that number will increase to about 475.
But, counselors increasing work loads are not only about the numbers. Like budgetary cuts, each school in AISD has its own guidance counseling structure. The principal and administrative staff determine a counselor’s priorities.
Montemayor says she is one of the lucky ones.
At O. Henry Middle School, she runs more than six different programs at the school for her students and four counseling groups - two for boys and two for girls.
Each group is centered around a different topic: emotional support, friendship, self-esteem, girls who have witnessed domestic violence or have been sexually or mentally abused, boys who have incarcerated loved ones, students who have lost a loved one or whose loved ones have a terminal illness and any other topic where she notices a common need among students.
She also runs four “Lunch Bunches” or where she invites students (some who are failing more than two classes and some who are constantly dropping in to visit her during their class time) to bring their school schedule, come eat with her in groups during their lunch period, and learn how to access different online tools to keep their grades up.
In addition, Montemayor runs an after-school art club on Mondays, supervises a peer tutoring group during the school’s advisory class period.
Montemayor says her Principal understands the importance of pairing academic learning and emotional support in the educational system.
At Small Middle School, Lyday says counselors have been directed to run support groups only during the 25 minute advisory class and to stop pulling students out of classes for counseling sessions.
“The job of a school counselor is to remove barriers to learning. I am very concerned that school counseling is being sidelined and minimized, ” Lyday says. “The unfortunate byproduct is going to be students and families whose lives are in either permanent or temporary chaos will not be able to adequately be served and supported.”
Book "On Breathing & Long-Distance" Self-Published through Lulu.com
My first self-published book of poetry On Breathing & Long-Distance is now for sale here!
Click to my official page to download the official press release that I've been sending out to bookstores and poetry book reviewers to garner some interest in the book.
"Like" the book's Facebook page to stay updated with the upcoming official book release, readings around town, book sale discounts and any other wonderful poetry-like endeavors of mine.