California made a historic investment in school counselors. Is it enough? [edsource.org]

By Carolyn Jones, Photo: Alison Yin/EdSource, EdSource, March 1, 2022

For the first time in more than a decade, California invested significantly in school counselors last year as the pandemic spurred a mental health crisis among young people. But even with more funds and a soaring need, California’s school student-to-counselor ratio still ranks near the bottom nationally.

According to the national rankings released last month by the American School Counselor Association, California schools have an average of 527 students for each counselor, more than double the recommended ratio of 250-to-1. Only five states had fewer counselors per student.

Still, that’s a big improvement from the early 2000s, when California had nearly 1,000 students per counselor and ranked last among the 50 states. School districts have been gradually hiring more counselors since then, using funds from the Local Control Funding Formula and more recently, from the $20 billion windfall for schools in last year’s state budget.

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