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Clovis Unified must prove commitment to student mental health is not lip service | Opinion

The Fresno Bee - 3/12/2023

When I saw the headline “Teen Girls Report Record Levels of Sadness, CDC Finds” I immediately needed to know what was in it and simultaneously terrified to find out. A bleak series of statistics from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every two years by the federal Centers for Disease Control, showed once more the increasing rates of mental health problems impacting adolescents. A particular statement stood out:

“We don’t have enough therapists to care for all these kids.”

This quote, from a doctor on Long Island, New York, could have been spoken by many doctors, parents, teachers or administrators in the San Joaquin Valley, where suicide rates are the highest in the state. Ask any parent who has sought mental health for their child in the Fresno area. Months-long waits for initial appointments, and if your child doesn’t respond to that provider, often there are zero alternatives.

The report was full of worrying statistics; rising suicide rates, increasing sexual assault rates, girls and boys struggling with depression at levels never before seen. Social media contributed to these issues, and the COVID pandemic exacerbated already unsettling trends. “Young people are telling us that they are in crisis,” a doctor with the CDC said.

During a crisis people need help. Yet in the Clovis Unified School District, those who can help — the school psychologists and mental health service providers — are underpaid and overworked. They do their best to fill the void in this mental health desert. It’s a difficult role with more hats than the Clovis Rodeo.

The responsibilities are vast: Serving students with special education requirements; conducting mental health screenings; and offering behavioral support, counseling, suicide risk assessment and threat assessment, to name a few. They provide critical consultations with stakeholders to best meet the needs of students. Critical shortages, such as faced by CUSD, limit school psychologists’ ability to do their work.

Research shows an optimal ratio of 1:500-700, but when student ratio exceeds 700 students, psychologists are significantly less able to provide meaningful mental health support or behavioral interventions. Sadly, as CUSD has allowed student-to-teacher ratios to climb to unacceptable levels, so too have ratios for school psychologists. At many CUSD schools there isn’t even one full-time psychologist on campus. They must split their time between multiple schools.

CUSD also pays less — the district’s own findings for the market study they obtained showed that total compensation for school psychologists is below that of 11 comparable districts. Perhaps that is why the school psychologists opted to unionize last year. They are asking for more resources and pay that is comparable with their experience and peers that would allow them to better serve the ever-growing needs of students in the district.

We’ve heard about “plans” to address mental health challenges facing students for years. Yet those plans fall on deaf ears when the solution to our problem is staring us in the face, while the district drags its feet and pays lip service to the community. The district spokeswoman stated the “district knows students are struggling with mental health issues and is always looking for ways to improve and welcomes new ideas.”

They’re in luck: ACE has been negotiating a plan that would make CUSD a leading district in serving the mental health of students. The plan requires investment that would help retain psychologists and recruit for open positions currently vacant due to low compensation and dangerously large ratios. In a jobs market which is at near full employment, you can’t get the best without paying like it. Our children deserve the investment, not a district playing politics with their safety and well-being.

©2023 The Fresno Bee. Visit fresnobee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.