HILLIARD, Ohio — The pandemic took a toll on everyone, especially kids as many lost a year of learning in a familiar way.
To address the impact of COVID-19 on education, congress set aside more than $13 billion through the Cares Act for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.
One way that funding is being used in some districts is to hire additional school counselors.
Amy Chamberlain, a mother and adjunct professor of psychology at Columbus State Community College, explained that she sees value in the new hires.
“I am now and the next generation, my children, are at the schools. I was directly impacted by Hilliard having such a great response in my own youth,” she said. "I became a trained therapist and I specifically moved back to Ohio, to Hilliard, because I wanted my children raised in that school district because they paid attention to that sort of thing.”
When Chamberlain was a student at Hilliard City Schools, the district started a stress group for over-achieving students. It focused on offering additional support to students like herself.
Now, the district is adding additional support, following the pandemic.
“So, there's a great deal of stress and anxiety that's created by that and we don't know exactly how that's going to manifest itself but we did know that we wanted to beef up our ability to respond when necessary,” said David Steward, who is the superintendent for Hilliard City Schools.
It’s Stewart’s first year as a superintendent and he's already facing big decisions.
Using ESSER money, the district added eight school counselors and nine social workers, allowing for a full-time presence in all schools.
Columbus City Schools is taking similar steps.
“When we heard about the new funding that was going to be available to the district and we began to really study the critical needs, the overwhelming response from school principals was, 'If you can do anything, we need a full-time school counselor,’” Executive Director of Leadership and School Programs Kathryn Moser explained.
The state’s largest school district is still in the hiring process, hoping to meet students’ social-emotional learning, academic and career development needs during an already difficult year.
“With the addition of ESSER funds, that would create a wonderful opportunity to have one school counselor in every building full time, so our counseling ratios would go down, from being two buildings, about 700 students, to somewhere around 200-300 students depending on the building population,” said Stacy Callahan, Columbus City Schools school counselor.
Chamberlain told 10TV that meeting needs such as these are essential.
“I don't understand how we think it's a no-brainer to provide food at schools for kids and then counseling is a luxury. I don't see it as a luxury,” she said.