Sen. Cramer introduces bill incentivizing students to become school counselors and psychologists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Kevin Cramer has introduced a bill to address a shortage of mental health providers in our nation’s schools.

It’s called the Mental Health Excellence in Schools Act.

It would create a program giving schools that sign up for the program money to fund some of the cost of attendance for students studying to become school psychologists, counselors, and social workers.

The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of one school psychologist per 500 students.

The national average ratio is approximately one school psychologist per 1,065 students, and for North Dakota it’s one psychologist for every 1,204 students.

Sen. Cramer says that this bill is an important step in fixing those numbers.

“I think that if we can do something to incentivize more people to go into school counseling or school psychiatry or psychology, we can probably head off a lot of the long-term consequences of mental health if it’s diagnosed earlier, if there’s somebody that a student can reach out to in the school (and) get professional help. All that can make a huge difference in terms of making America more mentally healthy going forward,” Cramer said.

The bill has been endorsed by several mental health organizations, including the National Association of School Psychologists and the American Counseling Association.