More than 1,000 DeKalb County students need psych evaluations

More than 1,000 students in the DeKalb County School District are waiting for psychological evaluations, district officials said last week.

The state’s third-largest district’s backlog has been brewing since at least 2020, thanks to school closures during the pandemic and staffing problems. DeKalb is exploring several ways to work through the waitlist, including hiring an outside company to evaluate students.

In a recent survey the district conducted, parents, students, employees and community members all said mental health was their No. 1 concern. Adding more staff to support students’ mental health is one of the district’s top priorities for the next year’s budget.

School psychologists are among several staff members who help take care of students’ mental health needs by connecting them with the appropriate services, intervening in crisis situations and training other staff members. When students are suspected of having a disability or need that could qualify them for special education services, teachers and administrators can refer them to be evaluated by a school psychologist (with their parents’ permission).

As of March 2024, there were 1,337 students with signed consent forms waiting for that evaluation. By May 6, district staff told school board members the number had reached 1,600.

Some of those students are required to be evaluated within 60 days of referral, and the district is on track to meet that timeline for those students, said Kimberly Franklin, the district’s coordinator of psychological services. Other students who are already receiving services and need to be reevaluated are the ones who are facing long wait times, Franklin said.

“What’s going to happen with the (students) that you can’t get to at this point?” asked board member Joyce Morley at a recent meeting.

The school board approved a $300,000 contract with Horizons Psychological Assessment Center, located near Cumberland Mall in Cobb County, which will provide inperson assessments to 240 students over the summer. District staff members have volunteered to work through the summer on the backlog, and are already working evenings and weekends. The district also is partnering with Georgia State University, thanks to a five-year, $2.9 million federal grant to provide psychology students with internships and jobs upon graduation.

Now, at the urging of board members and Superintendent Devon Horton, the district is considering whether to hire contractors who can evaluate students virtually. District staff had previously only considered those who could provide in-person services — but it may not have that luxury anymore.

“I think the question becomes, can we afford to take that position without having access to get these evaluations done?” Horton said. “The further we go along, the more challenging it gets.”

Georgia has one of the worst student-to-school psychologist ratios in the country, according to the most recent data available from the National Association of School Psychologists. The recommended ratio is 500 students to one psychologist. The national average in the 2022-2023 school year was 1,119 students to one psychologist; in Georgia, it was 2,077. Last year, the ratio in DeKalb was 1,890 students to one psychologist.

DeKalb has had difficulty hiring and retaining providers, said Chief of Student Services Norman Sauce. Ten schools were without psychologists in the beginning of the year, with another three psychologists on leave.