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Educators and Student Instructional Support Personnel 

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Educators and Student Instructional Support Personnel 

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Adequate staffing and support

Trained to address student mental health in schools

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District and school professionals are the foundation of comprehensive school mental health systems.

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District and school professionals are the foundation of comprehensive school mental health systems.

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Administrators and Educators

Student Instructional Support Personnel

School Psychologists

School Counselors

School Social Workers

School Nurses

Other Health Professionals

Consider nationally recognized staffing ratios.

Community partners should augment existing supports and services in a strategic and integrated way.

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Challenge: Adequate Staffing and Support

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Challenge: Adequate Staffing and Support

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Resource: Policies Addressing the Shortage of School Psychologists

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Resource: Policies Addressing the Shortage of School Psychologists

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https://www.nasponline.org/research-and-policy/policy-priorities/critical-policy-issues/shortage-of-school-psychologists#:~:text=Shortages%20can%20include%20both%20an,meet%20the%20needs%20of%20students

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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There is a critical shortage in school psychology, both in terms of practitioners and in the availability of graduate education programs and faculty needed to train the workforce necessary to keep up with the growing student population. NASP recommends a ratio of one school psychologist per 500 students in order to provide comprehensive school psychological services. Current data estimates a national ratio of 1:1211; however, great variability exists among states, with some states approaching a ratio of 1:5000.

Shortages in school psychology, like shortages in other related education and mental health professions, have the potential to significantly undermine the availability of high quality services to students, families, and schools. Shortages can include both an insufficient supply of qualified school psychologists and school psychologists from diverse backgrounds, graduate faculty, and qualified practica and internship supervisors as well as an insufficient number of positions within districts to meet the needs of students. Consequences of the shortages include unmanageable caseloads; the inability for school psychologists to provide prevention and early intervention services or regularly consult with families and teachers; reduced access to mental and behavioral health services for some students; and limited scope of service delivery focused primarily on legally mandated special education practice.

In the face of these personnel shortages, school psychologists are in a good position to advocate for salary incentives for school psychologists who meet the National Certification of School Psychologists (NCSP) standards for training and supervision. The process of awarding these stipends is referred to as NCSP parity. NCSP parity refers to the need for school psychologists holding national certification to be treated equally to teachers and administrators holding national certification. In most school districts in America, teachers and administrators holding national board certification are awarded stipends for this accomplishment; in contrast, most NCSP school psychologists are not receiving these awards. Several states and school districts have already succeeded in adopting legislation and school board policies that provide a salary incentive for school psychologists who earn their NCSP. These stipends (a) are viewed as good recruitment and retention tools; (b) promote the employment of highly qualified personnel; and (c) support the delivery of high quality mental health services for students and families.

Below are a set of resources to help individuals and state associations advocate for the recommended policies and practices to remedy the shortage of school psychologists and for NCSP parity. You are encouraged to consult these resources to help you organize and plan for your professional and/or legislative advocacy activities. These materials can, and should, be adapted to meet the unique needs of your local communities and states. For information and resources relating to basic advocacy skills, check out NASP's Policy Playbook.

Congressional Briefing

On July 13, 2021, NASP hosted a virtual briefing entitled "Improving School and Student Outcomes: The Importance of Remedying Shortages in School Psychology."

This briefing highlights the impact shortages have on students and schools.

State Ratio Graphic

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There is a critical shortage in school psychology, both in terms of practitioners and in the availability of graduate education programs and faculty needed to train the workforce necessary to keep up with the growing student population. NASP recommends a ratio of one school psychologist per 500 students in order to provide comprehensive school psychological services.

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Challenge: Trained to Understand and Address Student Mental Health in Schools

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Challenge: Trained to Understand and Address Student Mental Health in Schools

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What is Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH)?

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What is Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH)?

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Comprehensive school mental health systems provide a full array of supports and services that promote positive school climate, social and emotional learning, and mental health and well-being, while reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness.

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Resource: Build Staff Mental Health Capacity

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Resource: Build Staff Mental Health Capacity

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See Recommendation 4

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Challenge: Lack of understanding of the mental health-academics connection

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Challenge: Lack of understanding of the mental health-academics connection

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Resource: Mental Health and Academic Achievement

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Resource: Mental Health and Academic Achievement

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Students

Families

Schools

Community health and mental health

Policymakers

Funders

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School-community advisory group

Needs assessment process and program selection

Family-centered procedures

Communications

Evaluating programs and communicating results

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Partnerships between schools and community mental health organizations are purposeful, and designed to:

Augment the abilities of schools to address barriers to learning and promote social-emotional well-being

Provide a broader array of supports, including mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention within a multi-tiered system of support

Improve access to mental health care

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Challenge: Reluctance to have community mental health providers working in the school

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Challenge: Reluctance to have community mental health providers working in the school

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Resource: Effective School-Community Partnerships to Support School Mental Health

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Resource: Effective School-Community Partnerships to Support School Mental Health

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Effective School Comm Partnerships to support SMH Final

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Resource: Confidentiality concerns: HIPAA and FERPA

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Resource: Confidentiality concerns: HIPAA and FERPA

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What are Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)?

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What are Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)?

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Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) focus on what we should do for all in Tier 1. Tier 2 evidence- based approaches address continuing needs of some individuals. Tier 3 intensive strategies apply to few individuals with the most significant needs.

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Challenge: Understand and apply MTSS in schools.

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Challenge: Understand and apply MTSS in schools.

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Resource: Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in the classroom 

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Resource: Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in the classroom 

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Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in the classroom

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Resource: Module 1: Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health

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Resource: Module 1: Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health

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Recording: Module 1: Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health

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Recording: Module 1: Foundations of Comprehensive School Mental Health

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This module provides an overview of the National School Mental Health Curriculum as well as the definition and core features of comprehensive school mental health. Alignment between the Curriculum and the School Mental Health Quality Assessment in The SHAPE System is described, as well as district successes with advancing school mental health systems.

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Resource: Advancing Comprehensive School Mental Health: Guidance From the Field

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Resource: Advancing Comprehensive School Mental Health: Guidance From the Field

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Resource: SWPBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory

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Resource: SWPBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory

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What are Evidence-Informed Services and Supports?

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What are Evidence-Informed Services and Supports?

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Services and supports that are backed by scientific and/or practice-based evidence

Teams need a system to evaluate evidence

Ongoing monitoring of implementation success

Systematic, reliable data informs decisions about student supports and services

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Evidence-based practice registries

Research literature

Evidence-based practice developers

Schools implementing the service or support

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What are Cultural Responsiveness and Equity?

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What are Cultural Responsiveness and Equity?

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Responsive to the specific cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors of families and communities

Ensure access to mental health supports and services in a manner that is equitable and reduces disparities across all students

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Equity in Mental Health Framework Recommendations

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Equity in Mental Health Framework Recommendations

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Mental health and well-being of all students

Guidance to various student subgroups

Diverse and culturally competent faculty and staff

National and international equity issues/events

Accessible, safe communication and effective response system

Culturally and linguistically appropriate services and supports

Disaggregate key data points, i.e., break it down into smaller units to look for patterns

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Using observations and other data/information to make fair, objective decisions about:

Identifying student mental health needs

Matching students to appropriate services and supports

Monitoring progress to evaluate student response to interventions

Changing student services and supports over time as appropriate

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What Are the Sources of Data in Schools?

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What Are the Sources of Data in Schools?

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Mental health screenings and assessments

School climate surveys

Grades

Attendance/seat time

Performance test scores

Office referrals

Suspensions/expulsions

Achievement/benchmark test scores

Behavioral observations

Crisis incidents

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Challenge: How to Address Cultural Responsiveness and Equity

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Challenge: How to Address Cultural Responsiveness and Equity

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Challenge: Identify and Share Evidence-Based Practices

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Challenge: Identify and Share Evidence-Based Practices

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Resource: DCPS Panorama Survey Information

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Resource: DCPS Panorama Survey Information

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The Panorama Spring 2022 Surveys for families, students, and DCPS staff will open on March 1. Your voice matters!

Families will take the survey at bit.ly/dcpsfamily. Students will take the survey at surveys.panoramaed.com/dcps. A student's access code is their DCPS student ID.

Parents and guardians have the right to opt students out of the survey via a Microsoft Form that is open as of February 14. The deadline to opt out is March 4. Click below to view details and instructions.

View Survey Notification and Opt-Out Information: English | Español | አማርኛ | 中文

To learn more about the survey and why it matters, you can view district-level results for student and family surveys at bit.ly/dcpsresults, read our 2021 Panorama Survey Report for spring 2021 survey highlights, trends and more, and see the FAQs below.

What is the Panorama Survey?

DCPS laid out a vision in A Capital Commitment that every student will feel loved, challenged, and prepared to positively influence society and thrive in life. The Panorama Survey, administered yearly since 2017-18, is a critical way to measure progress toward that goal and gather feedback from our community. See the survey guides below for more.

Who takes the Panorama Survey?

The fall survey is for students in grades 3 and up only. In the spring, students in grades 3 and up, families of students in all grades, teachers, non-instructional school staff, and Central Office staff all take Panorama surveys.

Do students have to take the survey?

Parents and guardians have the right to opt students out of the survey. Students 18 or older can opt themselves out of the survey. Each letter is shared with families in the weeks before the survey opens notifying them about the survey and how to opt out.

What's in the survey?

The survey for students asks questions about how students perceive themselves, their social emotional competencies, and their schools. The family and staff surveys ask about family and staff engagement and student social emotional learning. View survey categories and questions and explore results for each scale and question at bit.ly/dcpsresults.

How are results from the survey used?

Lots of ways! The district and individual schools use the survey to evaluate progress on the Loved, Challenged, and Prepared Index (LCPI) and set new goals. Principals and school teams also use the results to decide on new interventions and programs to improve school climate and social emotional learning, and many schools incorporate Panorama goals into their Comprehensive School Plans each year. The Student Success portal, part of DCPS's multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), allows teachers to see students' SEL scale scores side-by-side with attendance, behavior, and academic data to better plan interventions to support individual students. To learn more, read the 2021 Panorama Survey Report.

Where can I see survey results?

Families and members of the public can now view district-level results from the Family and Student Panorama Surveys on the Panorama portal at bit.ly/dcpsresults! Explore district-level results on the Student Satisfaction Index, our SEL scales, the Loved, Challenged, and Prepared Index, and the Family Engagement scale, including the individual questions that make up each scale, as well as breakdowns of responses by different student subgroups.

All DCPS Central Office and school staff can view district- and school-level results on the Panorama portal. Visit secure.panoramaed.com/login to access your account.

Survey reports from 2014 through 2021 are available at the bottom of this page.

Where can I find more information?

You can review these survey guides[PDF] for more details on the surveys. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have additional questions.

Previous Survey Results

Visit the Panorama portal at bit.ly/dcpsresults to explore district-level results from past Family and Student Panorama Surveys

Survey Reports (downloadable as PDFs)

Stakeholder Survey Reports (downloadable as PDFs)

Aggregate Data (downloadable as Excel spreadsheets)

Thanks for your interest in the DCPS Panorama Survey! Please email [email protected] with questions.

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The Panorama Spring 2022 Surveys for families, students, and DCPS staff will open on March 1. Your voice matters! Families will take the survey at bit.ly/dcpsfamily. Students will take the survey at surveys.panoramaed.com/dcps. A student's access code is their DCPS student ID.

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Resource: DC OSSE School Climate and Culture Information

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Resource: DC OSSE School Climate and Culture Information

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What are Multi-Tiered Systems of Support?

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Resource: Effectiveness in Context: Tips for Identifying Evidence - Based Practices for Diverse Student Populations

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Resource: Effectiveness in Context: Tips for Identifying Evidence - Based Practices for Diverse Student Populations

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DCPS Equity – DC Public Schools Equity Strategy and Programming

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Challenge: Understand Available MTSS Options

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Challenge: Understand Available MTSS Options

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Section 6: Understanding Data as Information (approx. 54 min.)

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Resource: DCPS Guide to Comprehensive School Behavioral Health

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Resource: DCPS Guide to Comprehensive School Behavioral Health

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DCPS GUIDE_SCHOOL BEHAVIORAL HEALTH_JUNE 2019

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Resource: DC OSSE: Supporting Mental Health in Schools

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Resource: DC OSSE: Supporting Mental Health in Schools

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Healthy bodies and minds are the foundation of academic success. The Division of Health and Wellness leverages programming, partnerships, policy, and data to remove health barriers to learning so that people of all ages and backgrounds are prepared to succeed in school and in life.

OSSE supports schools in being places where student mental and behavioral health is addressed and staff have the tools to recognize the warning signs and risk factors of youth mental health crisis, including suicide, and to implement best practices for suicide prevention, intervention, and post-vention. This work thrives in partnership with LEAs ( DC Project AWARE) and with the Department of Behavioral Health School Behavioral Health Program.

OSSE is pleased to offer the following tools:

Written guidance to assist local education agencies in developing and adopting policies and procedures for handling aspects of mental and behavioral health for students;

A catalogue of all professional development and training programs offered; and

Curriculum and implementation resources to support schools with implementing high-quality, multi-tiered mental health systems of support.

Supporting Schools

Schools are an ideal place to connect students with mental and behavioral health supports. OSSE seeks to equip schools with the tools needed to ensure students and families have access to quality evidence-based supports and interventions.

Supporting Staff

Supporting administrators, teachers, and other staff allows educators to show up for and enable student success. Ensuring staff feel equipped to identify and meet the needs of their students will support staff and student wellness and build a positive school culture that allows every member of the school community to thrive.
Mandatory Youth Behavioral Health Training for Administrators and Educators
OSSE collaborates with the Department of Behavioral Health to monitor DC public and public charter school staff completion of the Support DC Youth behavioral health training. DBH provides this youth behavioral health training at www.supportdcyouth.com. District law mandates that all public and public charter school teachers and principals complete a behavioral health training once every two years (DC Law 14-56; DC Official Code § 7-1131.17(b)(1)).
Professional development for Administrators, Educators, School Behavioral Health Providers, and Other Staff
School leaders and behavioral health providers may email [email protected] for additional questions and support.

Supporting Families

Providing leadership opportunities, knowledge, and elevating family voice and partnership supports the promotion of family wellness and ensures family engagement, values, and voice are infused in a school-based system of care.
Community Support for Parents
The Department of Behavioral Health offers a Parent Support Program to enhance the resilience of District families by providing coping tools and consultation services that help parents manage the stressors they are experiencing.

To select a community-based mental health provider that best meets you or your child's needs, please call the Access HelpLine at 1-888-793-4357 and talk with a mental health professional who will guide you through the process.

Parents may also view the Behavioral Health Resource Link which contains information about available services and supports in the District, including housing, employment, legal services, and substance abuse treatment programs for young adults.

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Healthy bodies and minds are the foundation of academic success. The Division of Health and Wellness leverages programming, partnerships, policy, and data to remove health barriers to learning so that people of all ages and backgrounds are prepared to succeed in school and in life.