The good news is that millions of dollars for new school psychologist positions are in both the house and senate proposed budgets, as of may 28, 2019.Cognitive learning center thanks to advocacy by NCSPA, our legislators in the general assembly understand our dire workforce shortages, how the shortages adversely affect public school children, and they are taking action to fill the vacancies.Cognitive learning center on our requested salary increases, the only such increases at present are those attached to the very different teacher salary increase plans proposed by the house and senate. [1] because the school psychologist salary schedule is attached to the teacher salary schedule, any such raises would depend upon the final-enacted budget, which is not expected until late june or july, at the earliest.Cognitive learning center moreover, the question remains as to whether the governor will sign or veto this budget bill, HB 966 appropriations act of 2019. For further background on the two (2) competing budget proposals, please see the house press conference and senate press conference links at bottom under “other references.”

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On may 3, 2019, the NC house passed the following ¼ set-aside (approximately 4.75 million dollars in 2019-20; and 7.55 million dollars in 2020-21; see highlighted language below) exclusively for additional school psychologist positions within the otherwise competitive school safety grants, specifically within the school mental health personnel grants at sections 7.36(a)(8) & 7.36(b):

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On the NC senate side, it introduced its budget bill during the week of may 28. Like the house, the senate also enacted school safety grants (section 7.36, pp. 46-50; see link to senate version of HB 966 below) but the senate budget does not include the ¼ express set aside for school psychologists positions.Cognitive learning center instead, the senate passed the following 8 million dollars (recurring) measure that would create a new school psychologist allotment where school psychologist position funding would be separated out from the current “instructional support” allotment and given its own specific allotment as follows:

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Especially after students leave for their summer break, please take those days to get to know your legislator as a person. It is a now or never moment for our profession – literally the next few days until friday june 14.Cognitive learning center your email, phone call, handwritten note, face-to-face meeting can make the difference. We have found that every time one of our school psychologists reaches out to their legislator to explain our plight, it is both an enlightening and compelling moment for that legislator.Cognitive learning center many legislators still do not know what we do for children on a day-to-day basis: today is the day you can change that. Make the call: tell your story.Cognitive learning center here is a sample letter to send to your legislators.

• there has been some confusion in the media and elsewhere on the significant differences between school psychologists' work and other health professionals in our schools.Cognitive learning center school psychologists' training and expertise are more rigorous than others, especially regarding exceptional children, related federal legal obligations, and complex threat assessments to improve school safety.Cognitive learning center

• in NC, 22 school systems and most of our 172 charter schools do not have even 1 school psychologist. That is hundreds of thousands of children in NC who are entirely unserved by the highest-trained mental health professionals in any school.Cognitive learning center please see attached vacancy data, SISP workforce chart, and NC stakeholders comments and questions.

• NC is losing its own NC natives who prepare in 1 of our 5 school psychology training programs (appalachian state, western carolina, NC state, UNC chapel hill, ECU) and then leave the state based on a ten thousand dollar differential.Cognitive learning center raising school psychologists salaries by ten thousand will fix this problem - the solution in SB 382/HB 482.

• what is the cost of providing students with adequate psychological support?Cognitive learning center federal bureau of labor statistics states that the average salary for a school psychologist was 77,430 dollars. NC’s state salary schedule for school psychologists – who are required to have master’s degrees – starts at 44,000 dollars/year and tops out at 64,020 dollars.Cognitive learning center our maximum state-funded salary is 13,000 dollars below the national average.