The Final Report - Malcolm Shabazz City High School, Madison WI

Decision Item #23: ELIMINATE SELECT PSYCHOLOGIST FUNCTIONS AND REDUCEALLOCATION ACCORDINGLY (cont.)Redundancies orAvailability of theService Elsewhere:Both psychologists and social workers perform some functions (includingcounseling). It is not possible to determine, however, whetherpsychologists and social workers are treating the same students. Inaddition, many professionals contend that the service delivery modelsare different, and some students may be better served by socialworkers, while psychologists best serve others.Other Considerations: This analysis presumes that eliminating functions and the correspondingdemands on psychologists’ time, can lead to a reduction in overallallocation of psychologists by a corresponding amount. It should benoted, however, that there are likely operational differences in howpsychologist spend their time, based on the needs of the schools towhich they are assigned. Therefore, this reduction in functions and totalpsychologist FTE’s allocated to schools should be accompanied by areexamination of the allocation formula. For example, if a greater portionof a certain function was performed at one school, that school’sallocation would be reduced more significantly than that of a schoolwhere psychologists spend more time on counseling students andparents.Although there is no uniform national or state standard for psychologistto student ratios, the mean in Wisconsin is 1196 students perpsychologist – the national mean is 2,195. The MMSD ratio is 627students per psychologist (placing the District in the 10 thpercentile ofdistricts in Wisconsin 6 ). If the allocation were reduced by 7.2 FTE, theratio would be 765 students per psychologist, which is still above the25 th percentile for the state.The principal survey results provide additional information on theappropriateness of psychologist allocations (prior to any adjustments).When asked to rank the importance of over 20 allocations, principals athigh schools, middle schools, and elementary schools rankedpsychologists as 5, 3, and 3, respectively (with one being the mostimportant).In analyzing the role of psychologists in providing services to staff, itshould be noted that some psychologists may serve as EmployeeAssistance Program (EAP) representatives, and may include time spentin that function in this category. However, since any employee can serveas a representative, eliminating the function of psychologist services tostaff should not affect the EAP program.6Data source: National Association of School Psychologists survey – results available on the web atwww.nasponline.orgVirchow, Krause & Co. LLP Page 114March 11, 2002