Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is still struggling to adequately provide for their students’ psychological needs despite expanding their resources for mental health services.
Since the pandemic, MCPS has emphasized their students’ mental well-being. 61,000 out of over 150,000 MCPS students, more than 40 percent, have reported stress and anxiety, family conflict and communication as their top concerns entering the school year in a countywide survey.
With the hiring of 40 social workers between 2021 and 2022, along with 44 part-time elementary counselors, 16 part-time middle school counselors, and 16 high school counselors, MCPS is beginning to take more steps to address the mental health crisis among their students. However, these numbers are still relatively small, especially considering that there are 210 schools in MCPS.
Each high school in MCPS is required to have one social worker, but this arrangement puts a lot of strain on the singular social worker to provide for the needs of all their students. Furthermore, In middle and elementary schools, there are only part-time social workers, making it even more challenging to support the needs of all students.
Social workers benefit students by directly supporting students struggling with their mental health and guiding them to more resources beyond what school counselors can provide. While counselors can assist students with career and academic goals, social workers can guide students through more social and emotional challenges.
Executive director of the Maryland Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Mary Beth Demartino said in an interview with ABC 7, “Social workers are really the only employees that are certificated professionals through [the Maryland State Department of Education] to provide counseling.”
Yet, MCPS cannot hire more social workers due to the lack of professionals in the field. As of 2022, the Maryland Department of Human Services, the largest employer of social workers in the United States, has had 250 vacant positions for the past year.
MCPS can fully provide for their students’ socio-emotional needs once they fill these vacancies in social workers, and MCPS can hire more social workers for their schools.
Written by Ishani Biswas of Poolesville High School
Image courtesy of Flickr