Botelle Elementary School is about to lose a part-time social worker who provides 2.5 days of counseling each week, funded by a grant program that provides mental health services to roughly 7,000 students at 32 Litchfield County schools. Legislators and educators are calling on the U.S. Department of Education to reverse its decision to cut the program.
Jonathan Costa, executive director of EdAdvance, the agency that administers the grant, said everyone at Botelle has access to the counselor, including staff.
“Most of time, the social worker interacts with staff in support of students,” he said, “but if there is a need, staff can use the service as well.”
He said that across the Northwest Corner, 17 mental health workers have had about 5,000 interactions with students since the grant was funded in 2022. “We’ve had 100 different episodes of acute crisis,” he said. “In general, the world is a complicated place and students today face challenges we never dreamed of; everything from anxiety about tests, to bullying—anything that knocks a student off equilibrium and affects their performance.” He reported great reductions in absenteeism in the schools with counselors.
The federal Department of Education, declaring that the program was “no longer consistent with its goals” cut the program short by two years, slashing $3.65 million out of the $8.7 million originally approved for Litchfield County.
“One of cruelest ironies of this cancellation is that the last year two years built sustainability into the scope of the work,” Costa said. “All the districts impacted had completed their budgets. All those ships had sailed and there was no way they could plan to continue the program.”
County educators and legislators have drafted a response to the decision and are “pursuing every pathway to reverse the decision.”
In the meantime, EdAdvance has received a supplemental state grant to provide families with mental health services for their K to 12 students this summer. The service is free and includes individual or small-group counseling focusing on social/emotional wellbeing. Parents or guardians should contact Botelle Principal Lauren Valentino for a consent form.