Cuts to MCPS EML Therapeutic Counseling Team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county wants to provide everything for everyone. This is a fantastic goal but completely unrealistic. We need to trim expenses- cutting these non essentials makes sense.

Agreed. There is not an unlimited supply of money.

Also, even if you do feel that taxpayers should pay for everything, the school system needs to focus on education. It is unreasonable to expect the school system to provide healthcare. There are other resources.

So do you also support cuts to occupational, physical and speech therapy services in MCPS? These to me seem like healthcare too.

Those services are limited to addressing issues that affect access to the curriculum. They are not comprehensive. MCPS does not offer therapy sessions as part of the IEPs for kids with anxiety.

Ha. Even if it’s in your kid’s IEP, they STILL don’t provide it. My kid has a biweekly session with the school psychologist and they never see him.

You need to get an attorney if they are not providing services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county wants to provide everything for everyone. This is a fantastic goal but completely unrealistic. We need to trim expenses- cutting these non essentials makes sense.

If kids don't have the basics they cannot learn.

But MCPS goal is to provide an EDUCATION. Let MCPS focus on that and allow the County and they myriad of publicly funded non-profits to provide healthcare.

There is not a ton of health care. Call one of these places and try to get an appointment.

All of these laid off providers can set up a private practice that accepts Medicaid.

Reasonable suggestion actually.

They are licensed practitioners. This would be a great opportunity to band together and start Medicaid practices in the area, if they want to continue to serve these patients!

No one is setting up medicaid practices because the pay rate is so low.

Please call these "resources" and tell us how easy its to get care and when the next available appointment is.

You can have a private practice and accept some Medicaid patients, but I doubt that it would not be fairly easy to match a public school salary, even with Medicaid payments. Overhead for a therapy practice is not high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think of them as case managers. If the children are hungry or do not have health are they less likely to succeed at school. If they are experiencing violence in their neighborhoods they are less likely to succeed at school. A lot of what these counselors do is connect the kids with community resources as well as being a sounding board. Imagine yourself at 11 or 12 coming to a country where you don't speak the language and not knowing where to go for help because you have no food. The counselors are bilingual or trilingual and trained to help these kids. It's not a huge expense for MCPS.

Yes, I know of one ETC who was bilingual and learned, to fluency, a third language in order to connect to more kids in this demographic. These ETCs are some of the most exceptional employees in mcos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county wants to provide everything for everyone. This is a fantastic goal but completely unrealistic. We need to trim expenses- cutting these non essentials makes sense.

If kids don't have the basics they cannot learn.

But MCPS goal is to provide an EDUCATION. Let MCPS focus on that and allow the County and they myriad of publicly funded non-profits to provide healthcare.

There is not a ton of health care. Call one of these places and try to get an appointment.

All of these laid off providers can set up a private practice that accepts Medicaid.

Reasonable suggestion actually.

They are licensed practitioners. This would be a great opportunity to band together and start Medicaid practices in the area, if they want to continue to serve these patients!

No one is setting up medicaid practices because the pay rate is so low.

Please call these "resources" and tell us how easy its to get care and when the next available appointment is.

You can have a private practice and accept some Medicaid patients, but I doubt that it would not be fairly easy to match a public school salary, even with Medicaid payments. Overhead for a therapy practice is not high.

Ok, but that’s not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is appalling he is demanding more money for next year and cutting programs that hurt the kids who need those programs the most. So much for his promises for transparency.

Of course he needs to request more money. The price of everything is increasing including labor, benefits, maintaining facilities, etc.

willing to pay higher taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid needs a therapeutic counselor they should seek that outside the school.

These are immigrant children many of whom have interrupted schooling or experienced trauma. I don't want this to be a debate about immigration but the reality no matter what you think about immigration policy is these children are here in our community and we want to give them the best chance of success as we would do for any other child in our community. Those counselors do a lot and they are some of the most important people in MCPS IMO.

I completely agree that the county should offer supports for these kids. But it's not education.

These are part of wrap-around services in the school system, of which there are many as school is the common point of supporting families in our society. You have a 19th century notion of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think of them as case managers. If the children are hungry or do not have health are they less likely to succeed at school. If they are experiencing violence in their neighborhoods they are less likely to succeed at school. A lot of what these counselors do is connect the kids with community resources as well as being a sounding board. Imagine yourself at 11 or 12 coming to a country where you don't speak the language and not knowing where to go for help because you have no food. The counselors are bilingual or trilingual and trained to help these kids. It's not a huge expense for MCPS.

The county has social workers for this purpose

Most don't speak Spanish and they are mostly assigned to school or programs that are dealing with other issues including the teen mental health crisis and special ed . They are overwhelmed too.

That sounds like a problem for the county to solve

Your taxes will pay for it as long as it is a Montgomery-county delivered services. Cheaper to leave the services where they are at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This county wants to provide everything for everyone. This is a fantastic goal but completely unrealistic. We need to trim expenses- cutting these non essentials makes sense.

Non-essential for your child, right? If it's for other people's children, then cut it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS required to provide medical care to students even outside school hours? I think we're asking too much from MCPS.

Exactly. There are plenty of other resources in this county for students to access. This is not something MCPS should be responsible for.

Can you please share with us where, especially without insurance or bad insurance?

Children are eligible for Medicaid. For those who are not eligible for Medicaid, there is MCHP, which also provides benefit for undocumented immigrants.

https://health.maryland.gov/mmcp/chp/pages/home.aspx

There are also several non-profits, that get grant money (from taxpayers) that provide no-cost or low-cost care. Like this one, for example in Silver Spring.

https://www.maryscenter.org/medical/children-and-teens/pediatrics/

And, you think it’s that easy! It’s not and there are not enough Medicaid providers.

Yes, these services are very limited. We should advocate for better services for all the people in our community.

Yes, and support the services in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think of them as case managers. If the children are hungry or do not have health are they less likely to succeed at school. If they are experiencing violence in their neighborhoods they are less likely to succeed at school. A lot of what these counselors do is connect the kids with community resources as well as being a sounding board. Imagine yourself at 11 or 12 coming to a country where you don't speak the language and not knowing where to go for help because you have no food. The counselors are bilingual or trilingual and trained to help these kids. It's not a huge expense for MCPS.

The county has social workers for this purpose

Most don't speak Spanish and they are mostly assigned to school or programs that are dealing with other issues including the teen mental health crisis and special ed . They are overwhelmed too.

That sounds like a problem for the county to solve

Your taxes will pay for it as long as it is a Montgomery-county delivered services. Cheaper to leave the services where they are at.

That is not true at all. Other entities provide these services and have the ability to do it better.

[Anonymous]

A lot of extra services including mental health were expanded right after COVID so many people were hired. However, now the federal and state funding has been cut back to pre-COVID levels so they are letting go this extra support.

This is from a board doc in 2022:

Enhancements and Innovations for 2022–2023:
○ Additional staffing was allocated for school counselors
▪ 44 part time elementary counselors
▪ 16 part time middle school counselors
▪ 16 high schools received additional counseling support
▪ Increase in school-based ESOL counselor allocations to 1.0 Full Time Equivalent
at 7 high schools.

Enhancements and Innovations for 2022–2023
During the 2021–2022 school year, the Student, Family, and School Services (SFSS) team was increased by 14 PCCs. For the upcoming school year, PCCs will be assigned to schools through a new PCC cluster model. This new model will allow us to improve services to schools and families in several ways:
● increase support within a cluster, particularly with vertical articulation among families,
● extend outreach to a greater number of schools
● optimize family outreach services in school communities most impacted by poverty
and those with high Emergent Multilingual Learner populations.
A group of systemwide PCCs will continue to provide support in English, and in the following languages: Amharic, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Vietnamese.

https://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/CHZGTZ456B65/$file/Mental%20Health%20Well-Being%20Updates%20220908.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS required to provide medical care to students even outside school hours? I think we're asking too much from MCPS.

+1 this should really be funded outside of the MCPS budget. The county has mental health services, they should provide it.

Why does this matter?
County funds are country funds.

Schools system is the best way to serve children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county wants to provide everything for everyone. This is a fantastic goal but completely unrealistic. We need to trim expenses- cutting these non essentials makes sense.

If kids don't have the basics they cannot learn.

But MCPS goal is to provide an EDUCATION. Let MCPS focus on that and allow the County and they myriad of publicly funded non-profits to provide healthcare.

There is not a ton of health care. Call one of these places and try to get an appointment.

All of these laid off providers can set up a private practice that accepts Medicaid.

Reasonable suggestion actually.

They are licensed practitioners. This would be a great opportunity to band together and start Medicaid practices in the area, if they want to continue to serve these patients!

No one is setting up medicaid practices because the pay rate is so low.

Please call these "resources" and tell us how easy its to get care and when the next available appointment is.

You can have a private practice and accept some Medicaid patients, but I doubt that it would not be fairly easy to match a public school salary, even with Medicaid payments. Overhead for a therapy practice is not high.

EML Counselors do not provide medical services. They provide school counseling services to students whose first language is not English. The students come from across the world, from numerous language backgrounds, and have a diversity of circumstances as to why they are now in the United States. With Trump on the warpath, I can't think of any more vulnerable students in need of services. That Taylor chose this group of employees to cut is testimony to who he really is as a person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is MCPS required to provide medical care to students even outside school hours? I think we're asking too much from MCPS.

+1 this should really be funded outside of the MCPS budget. The county has mental health services, they should provide it.

Why does this matter?
County funds are country funds.

Schools system is the best way to serve children.

It matters because the MCPS budget should focus on providing educational services. The county funds things that aren't educational, including school nurses by the way.

[Anonymous]

Here is the link to the county budget item where these services belong: https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/BASISOPERATING/Common/Program.aspx?ID=PHS&PROGID=P63P13