Nebraska senator stresses shortage of school psychologists

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - “This is the most important for me,” said State Senator Jen Day.

As Senator Jen Day heads back to the Nebraska Unicameral, her two children head back to school.

“I go back tomorrow and they go back Thursday,” said Day.

A new report before lawmakers examined the mental and behavioral health needs of Nebraska students. It found staffing challenges and reimbursement issues.

For example, Nebraska has a ratio of 987 students to one psychologist. Best practices say schools should have one psychologist for every 500 students.

That means Nebraska schools would need to double the number.

Senator Day believes school psychologists should also be a Medicaid approved provider, which they are not right now.

“That creates a real problem for schools in terms of being reimbursed for services so often a school won’t hire a school psychologist in favor of sending students to a community provider and that’s ok, too but we know school psychologists have a specialized book of knowledge in a really particular setting,” said Day.

We know the pandemic has ratcheted up mental health issues for students. The interim study also found that just 62% of students needing treatment received the right amount of care.

“This is one of the first steps to getting students better care,” said Day.

So how do we get more college students interested in becoming school psychologists?

Senator Jen Day believes there should be a loan forgiveness plan or internship program as an incentive to join the career.

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