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On Friday, January 18, day five of the strike, tens of thousands of union members and supporters held a rally in Grand Park, outside Los Angeles City Hall.
On Friday, January 18, Day 5 of the Los Angeles instructor strike, tens of thousands of matrimony members and supporters held a rally in Grand Park, outside 50.A. City Hall. Credit: E. Tammy Kim/Hechinger Written report

LOS ANGELES — Teachers are enervating more than counselors and mental health support to better meet the needs of students, with Oakland's educators becoming the latest to bring together in the blood-red wave of those striking for better conditions.

Here in California, many counselors are responsible for supporting more than i,000 students each, and this is quadruple the ratio recommended by the American Schoolhouse Counselors Association. In Los Angeles, teachers launched a historic strike in January, in part because eighty percent of elementary schools exercise not take a full-time nurse.

Why don't schools hire more counselors? A report out today from my arrangement, the ACLU, shows that schools are indeed hiring: law officers. Instead of spending their coin on a long-proven solution, counseling, they are putting their resource into enforcement and subject field, even though at that place's little bear witness that these measures go along students safe, much less improve their emotional well-being. When educators fail to address students' record levels of depression, feet and trauma, schools become a conduit into the justice arrangement, and then into prisons, instead of to a better life.

Related: LA's school counselors strike back

The U.S. Department of Education, for the first fourth dimension in history, recently required every public school to report the number of social workers, nurses and psychologists employed. Our report is the first to analyze and compare some of this data at the state and national levels. Nosotros found that more than than xc percent of the 93,000 public schools in our analysis failed to come across professionally recommended student-to-staff ratios in the 2015-16 school year.

The nation­al student-to-advisor ratio was 444:i. This suggests counselors are seriously over­worked, with educatee caseloads 78 percent greater than what is recommended by experts. Arizona (758-to-1), Michigan (693-to-1) and California (682- to-1) had the highest ratios, leading the nation on this discouraging metric.

According to the School Social Work Association of America, social piece of work services should also exist provided at a ratio of 250 students to one social worker. Our written report found a ratio of 2,106 students to ane social worker, creating a caseload for social workers most eight times greater than what experts recommend.

"Why don't schools hire more counselors? A written report out today from my organization, the ACLU, shows that schools are indeed hiring: police officers."

The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 500-700 stu­dents per schoolhouse psychologist. Our analysis of federal data plant a national average of ane,526 students per psychologist. We institute that more than xix one thousand thousand students — 43 percent of all U.S. public school students — were enrolled in schools that failed to use a unmarried psychologist.

Despite the shortage of support staff, many schools are prioritizing constabulary enforcement over the mental wellness of students. Within six months of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, more $ane billion was added to schoolhouse security budgets past state legislatures, with much of that funding for school police.

Our study besides analyzed federal data related to school law to better understand this trend. Back in 1975, only 1 percent of schools were patrolled by police officers. Our report found that in some states over 65 percent of schools at present have law enforcement officers in schools. This is problematic because in that location is no conclusive evidence suggesting that school-policing measures make schools — or students — safer.

A 2018 report reviewing the affect of federal grants for schoolhouse police on 2.5 1000000 students in Texas plant a 6 percent increase in middle school discipline rates, a 2.v percentage decrease in loftier schoolhouse graduation rates and a 4 percent decrease in college enrollment rates. Consider these harms in light of some of our study's most of import findings:

  • 1.7* 1000000 students in a school with a constabulary officer just no counselor;
  • iii meg students in a school with law just no nurses;
  • 6 1000000 students in a school with constabulary merely no psychologist;
  • x one thousand thousand students in a school with police but no social workers;
  • fourteen million students in a school with a police officeholder but no advisor, nurse, psychologist or social worker.

These numbers epitomize what advocates refer to equally the schoolhouse-to-prison-pipeline. Many schools are set up in ways that increase a student'southward likelihood of entering the criminal justice organization. Over-policed schools lead to 5-year-olds being charged with assail after throwing temper tantrums. Over 290,000 schoolhouse arrests and referrals to police force enforcement were reported by schools in the 2015-16 school twelvemonth.

Our study found a troubling trend with referrals to law enforcement increasing by 17 pct nationwide. California alone saw a jump from 19,000 to 28,000 law enforcement referrals betwixt 2013-14 and 2015-sixteen. Our report also constitute that students of color and students with disabilities face police involvement and schoolhouse arrests at disproportionate rates. For instance:

  • Students with disabilities were arrested at a rate 2.5 times that of students without disabilities. In some states they were 10 times as probable to be arrested as their peers.
  • Black girls made up 16 percentage of the female student population but were 39 per centum of girls arrested in schoolhouse. Black girls were arrested at a charge per unit 4 times that of white girls. In North Carolina, Iowa and Michigan, black girls were more than 8 times equally likely to be arrested equally white girls.
  • Latino and Latina students were 3.5 times equally likely to exist arrested as white students in Rhode Island, and more than twice equally likely to be arrested in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
  • Native American girls had a schoolhouse abort rate 3.5 times that of white girls. Native Ameri­can girls are 12 percent of girls in Montana but deemed for 62 percent of female arrests in that state.
  • Pacific Islander and Native American students were twice as likely to be arrested in schoolhouse as white students.
  • Blackness and Latino boys with disabilities were iii percent of students merely were 12 percent of school arrests.

How we fix for and respond to children in demand of support are choices, and research is clear that providing more counselors and mental health professionals is the all-time approach. Despite the Trump administration's message following the tragic school shootings in 2018, there is no "crisis" in student behavior. Instead, there is a crunch of priorities leading to staff shortages and overcriminalization. Hit teachers likewise need better pay and working conditions. Only the lack of counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists coupled with the rise in school law has created a school environment that neglects our students' needs. Schools, districts and states take to accept student welfare more seriously.

*corrects number of students.

This story virtually the guidance gap was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, contained news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.

Amir Whitaker is a staff chaser with the American Civil Liberties Matrimony of Southern California, where he is responsible for legislation focused on education equity and funding.

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Amir Whitaker is a staff attorney with the American Ceremonious Liberties Union of Southern California, where he is responsible for legislation focused on education equity and funding.