Counseling System Reform Proposal
Overview: Through direct conversations with IUSD students affected by mental illnesses as well as the general student body of different IUSD schools, it is clear that there are many adjustments and additions that can be made to the counseling system district wide. Through this proposal, Crossroads Initiative strives to bring attention to the identified problems, propose a solution, showcase research that supports and backs up the aforementioned solutions, and outline a specific funding and payment plan for solutions that require money.
Problem: The problems identified by students all fall into the following categories:
The overcriminalization of mentally ill students
The lack of effective counseling resources
The lack of administrative and/or school support
First and foremost, the overcriminalization of mentally ill students and the district's overwhelming involvement of the police force when it comes to students asking for help is a major concern shared by many. Specifically, on school websites’ counseling and wellness pages, multiple if not most links lead to contacting the police, when a student expresses their emotions they are sent to the counselors or in some cases visited to the police, and students are often directed to report their friends to the police if their friend is struggling from a certain mental illness. Policing can be seen at every corner when it comes to how IUSD is handling student wellness issues.
Secondly, there is a lack of effective counseling resources. Most schools only have one wellness counselor, while there are three or four college counselors. There aren’t enough resources for students to be able to talk to adults that can help. If a student attempts to approach a counselor but that counselor is already busy with another student, it is hard not to feel discouraged. It is also difficult for the counselor to balance the mental health issues of thousands of students at once, decreasing the quality of counselling each student receives. Not only do most schools have only one wellness counselor, most students aren’t even aware of the fact that there is a specific staff member dedicated to mental health support. Schools need to make this assistance more known so that students know they can turn to wellness counselors for support. Another resource that students feel should be implemented is making it mandatory for wellness counselors to check on every single student at each high school throughout the year concerning their mental health. This focus on a student’s mental health can identify students that are at risk for having a mental illness as well as make students more comfortable discussing their mental health since they’re being directly approached by staff.
Lastly, students feel as if there is a lack of administrative support when it comes to mental illness. One issue identified by many students is the fact that counselors don’t seem to take teacher complaints seriously. If multiple students report that a certain teacher is affecting their mental health, guidelines need to be in place for those requests to be taken seriously and serious measures being taken concerning those teachers. Along with this, when a student is feeling particularly affected by a diagnosed mental illness and communicates this with their teachers, guidelines should be in place that encourage teachers to respond with extended deadlines or measures that can be taken to decrease that student's stress for a short period of time. If a student is unable to be diagnosed because of lack of health insurance, then a student should be able to approach a wellness counselor about their mental state, and if the wellness counselor sees fit teachers should treat that student the same way they would a student with a diagnosed illness. Teachers need to learn how to prioritize a student’s mental health before their understanding of curriculum, and this needs to be enforced by the district.
Background: In order to support our solutions and identified problems, we offer the following sources that provide research and statistics that show why it is essential for IUSD to follow through with the solutions proposed below. ACLU research states that data shows school staff that provide mental health services to children not only improves health outcomes for those students, but increases school safety. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students per counselor, far below the 1 to thousands ratio seen in most IUSD schools. Increasing our amount of wellness counselors is crucial to create a safe and comfortable environment for students. Without access to wellness counselors, students are unable to talk to trained adults about the problems they face and are lacking resources that have been shown to help them significantly. Along with this, around 25 percent of school police surveyed by Education Week stated that they had no experience with youth before working in schools. This proves how a significant percentage of the police that IUSD consistently promotes in regards to mental health do not even have experience in working with children, much less handling their mental health issues. Research consistently shows, as well as the responses collected by Crossroads Initiative, that students do not feel safe or comfortable discussing their mental health in schools if they know they are going to be reported to the police, or if there is any police involvement at all.
Solutions: There is an obvious solution to all the problems mentioned above.
Firstly, all IUSD schools need to stop promoting the police as means of communication for students with mental illnesses. The Portola High School website says “If it is after school hours, please do not email your counselor or teacher about your concern. Instead, please contact Irvine Police Department immediately! Inform Dispatch about the name of the student you are concerned about. Your call is anonymous. The police will go visit the student and provide support. You can follow up with your school counselor the next day about your call to the Police.” This is not the right way to handle students that need mental support. An alternative to this is removing this over promotion of the Irvine Police Department in relation to mental health throughout IUSD schools almost entirely if not completely, and instead offering students legitimate mental health resources such as counseling or therapy options, different hotlines with trained professionals, or contact information of trusted adults they can to that won’t intimidate them to the point of not even wanting to talk to anyone about what they’re going through anymore. When a student expresses their feelings about their mental state, stop having police officers visit them or counselors report them to the police - instead have them discuss how they feel with trained wellness counselors or therapists. Make students feel safe, not criminalized.
Secondly, hire more wellness counselors for each school. Every IUSD school should have 3-4 wellness counselors. The amount of importance IUSD gives to college readiness and scheduling should not, under any circumstances, outweigh the importance they give to students mental health. Along with this, IUSD needs to highlight and promote their wellness counselors at each school as much as possible. Make it known on school instagram pages, homeroom announcements, on the first day, to incoming freshman, etc. Make it mandatory for schools to emphasize on their wellness counselors as much as possible.
Lastly, create and brainstorm a list of easy to follow guidelines for teachers and counselors both that can help regulate the problems identified above. Crossroads Intiative’s reform team would be more than willing to work together with school or district representatives and affected students to help make IUSD a safer environment through brainstorming guidelines that can be put in place.
Funding Plans: All solutions listed above take no funding other than the request to hire more wellness counselors. Here is a link to some research done by Crossroad’s funding team explaining why IUSD needs to increase their mental health funding.
Conclusion: Crossroads Initiative wants to do as much as possible to make IUSD students feel safe and comfortable talking about their mental health so that efforts can be taken to help them. Please reach out to us to follow through with the solutions proposed and start creating guidelines to make IUSD a better place for all students to thrive. Mental wellness needs to be prioritized, and this is one of the few areas where IUSD is lacking that we strive to improve.