As experts say Maryland students are facing a mental health crisis, a Rockville delegate passed a bill to help recruit and retain mental health professionals in schools.
“We need to do more work in addressing the student debt burden and mental health crisis,” Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17) said. “I think this is an interesting bill that chips away at both of those issues.”
Vogel introduced and passed the bill in the Maryland General Assembly, and it passed in the senate on April 7. Once signed by Gov. Wes Moore (D), HB1219 would make mental health professionals employed in any Maryland public school eligible to receive up to $30,000 in student debt relief by expanding on a state program called the Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Repayment Program (LARP). Funding for LARP would increase from $1.4 million to $5 million under the new law, according to Vogel. The bill has 30 co-sponsors and was cross-filed in the senate by Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-Dist. 3) of Frederick County.
“The bill got amended into the governor’s Education Shortage Act and passed as it was originally written—the only difference being that now school counselors are also eligible, as well as county contractors who provide mental health services in public schools,” Vogel told MoCo360.
Vogel said he’s had numerous conversations with Montgomery County Public School students, teachers and mental health professionals to understand what needs to be done to address what he called a “student mental health crisis” tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. This bill would provide school psychologists and other mental health professionals with a “tremendous incentive” to work in MCPS and help combat the crisis, he said.
Colleen O’Neil is a MCPS parent and an associate school psychology professor at the University of Maryland in College Park. She described Maryland as “sorely understaffed” in school psychologists based on her work experience, and said the state is lucky if its graduate programs produce 20 new school psychologists in a year.
“Everyone’s overwhelmed. Teachers are overwhelmed and school psychologists are beyond overwhelmed,” she said. “They’re worried about being able to meet all the mental health needs that have erupted since the pandemic. That has a direct impact on students’ behavior in school and on their academic performance. It’s all intertwined.”
She pointed to isolation, lack of access to community, learning loss and economic hardship as pandemic-related factors that she said has contributed to the mental health crisis students face across Maryland. She said this legislature will provide direct support to school staff and make the profession of school psychology more attractive to prospect graduate students.
“I think we should feel some pride that Maryland is putting money and action toward actually supporting students’ mental health and not just talking about it,” she said.
Vogel said the governor is expected to sign the bill into law within the next few weeks. Once signed, it will go into effect July 1.
“I’m committed to doing everything in my power to address this mental health crisis we’re seeing in our schools right now and continuing to have conversations with administrators and professionals in MCPS,” Vogel said. “This is one important step in addressing the workforce shortage of mental health professionals in public schools, but I know we have a lot more work to do.”
