SPARTA — Mental health support for students is a growing priority and concern for schools across the country. Unfortunately, many districts are struggling to provide the support needed, but assistance from the state could make a difference.
School counselors can play a major part in helping kids get the help they need, whether it’s involving mental health or preparing for their future. The Superintendent of Sparta Area Schools sat down with Fox 17 to help us learn more about the need we’re seeing across the country.
"School counselors in our district are invaluable," Sparta Area Schools Superintendent, Joel Stoner explains these counselors provide students with skills to manage their emotions, achieve their career aspirations and provide educational support for all different levels of needs.
But even these experts can be overwhelmed by expectations.
"We have five altogether in the district. One at the K-2 building one at the 3-5, 1 at the 6-8 and two at the 9-12. So collectively, together, 2400 kids divided by five 480 kids per one counselor," said Stoner.
A large number of students for 1 counselor as the school does their best to make the mental health crisis a team effort with teachers and families.
"The fear is, for me, from my perspective is the emotional needs of our students are only getting bigger, stronger, more relevant and more prevalent," said Stoner. "But the financial support for that— although they're doing their best, I believe— I don't feel like we're keeping pace."
A challenging task as The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 1 counselor per 250 students. That’s far off from the actual national average for the 2021-2022 school year of one counselor for 408 students.
"Our goal should be to get nine to 10 counselors in the district. But you know, we're having this internal struggle around how do you balance the fiscal responsibilities that were asked to meeting the varied needs of our students and in post COVID, it feels there's more varied needs," said Stoner.
Sparta Area Schools would need an extra $400,000 to $600,000 budget to get to that desired number of counselors on staff; money that’s hard to find. Governor Whitmer’s 2024 budget aims to provide some more support. According to The Department of Education, 310 million dollars will be divided among public schools across the state on a per student basis.
"It's a $9,600, roughly, per student that goes into a general fund account, there's also categorical, a lot of the 31A, you know, we use at risk, we get roughly a million dollars a year from 31A at risk and it fluctuates based on a variety of metrics," said Stoner.
For Sparta this money goes towards hiring more social workers and school psychologists, plus partnering with agencies such as Family Outreach Center and Kent School Service Network. These coordinating programs help aid the counselors even more to provide not only the students but the families with overall care.
"We feel very fortunate the state has invested as much as they have in the last five years, but just like everything else, it never really feels like enough because the needs continue to multiply," said Stoner.
At the end of the day its the teamwork from the state funding, school counselors, agency coordinators, teachers and families to help combat the mental health crisis in our schools.
