Poor schools lacking counselors

When you have it, you take it for granted. When you don’t have it, you band-aid the situation as best you can. What am I talking about? Positions and programs that underfunded schools don’t have that well-funded schools assume everyone has. Today, let’s talk about elementary school counselors.

When school districts don’t have proper funding, the only thing they can do to remedy the situation and make their budgets work is to cut programs. Pottstown School District, for instance, is $13.5 million underfunded each year, therefore many standard programs that properly funded school districts have routinely implemented for years have been cut to balance the district budget.

Elementary school counselors are one such resource that had been cut from the Pottstown schools, as well as other underfunded school districts in the state. Pottstown has four elementary schools, so there are four critically important positions that have gone unfilled for a number of years. This year, the district has added four temporary grant-funded counselors.

The American School Counselor Association recommendation for student to school counselor ratio is 250 students to one counselor. Pottstown School District serves 1,300 elementary students meaning the district should have five elementary counselors. They now have four temporary grant funded positions, but nothing permanent.

When serious issues present themselves with any given student, permanent counselors should be available in any of the

Pottstown elementary schools on any day. This is especially true because many students are coming from homes where poverty runs rampant which presents mental, emotional, and physical challenges that need to be dealt with on a constant basis. The pandemic has increased the need for such services and support, and caused much anxiety and trauma for students. Serious issues such as bullying, cyberbullying, grief and loss through the pandemic should be addressed by counselors, but when there are none, these issues are many times left undone.

Counselors serve as skillful mental health professionals to support students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Many serve in various community roles as liaisons and collaborative partners to help cultivate initiatives that improve the lives of youth. Any PreK-12 educational environment without a school counselor lacks vital services to address the health, wellness, and safety of children. Besides the issues previously mentioned, drug and alcohol use and abuse, as well as suicide ideation and attempts are addressed by counselors.

Pottstown School District should have a total of at least 12 school counselors and they have four plus four temporary couselors. The students and staff of all of these schools are suffering greatly from the lack of emotional, behavioral, and general support. Many students coming from poverty lack the direction and motivation to be able to move forward on their own without assistance from a certified counselor.

The following chart will display the disparity in counseling services among school districts within a ten-mile radius of the center of Pottstown. You will notice that some of the districts have an abundance of counselors. This chart is not to show that they are overstaffed, but quite the opposite. These districts have the funding and are using it wisely to make sure that their students are taken care of in the areas of mental health, resilience, and guidance, among other critical areas. Pottstown students who need these same services, are left to fend for themselves because of lack of funding.

Myra Forrest is a lifelong educator and currently education advocate for the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.