Rep. Towns Reintroduces Bill to Increase Support Professionals at High-Need Schools

Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY-10) today reintroduced H.R. 3405 (formerly H.R. 1361), the Increased Student Achievement through Increased Student Support Act, a bill that would increase the recruitment and retention of school psychologists, school counselors, and school social workers by high-need urban and rural school districts.

The bill returns to the house floor just in time for School Psychology Awareness Week this week. H.R. 3405 aims to improve classroom achievement by making sure there is an adequate number of school support professionals available to students. 

“We recognize that in many of our nation's public schools, teachers are struggling to meet not only the academic needs of their students, but their social, emotional and behavioral needs as well,” said Congressman Towns. 

In New York state, there is one school psychologist for every 742 students, one school counselor for every 411 students, and one social worker for every 1112 students, and the need for these services is growing.

“There are many schools in underserved communities that suffer disproportionately from a lack of these support services and must share one school psychologist, social worker, or school counselor with neighboring schools," said Towns. "We must do everything we can to bring awareness to this issue and provide quality school support services to our high-need schools.”

The Increased Student Achievement through Increased Student Support Act authorizes grant funding for university-school district partnerships to increase the number of school psychologists, school counselors and school social workers in low-income schools.

The bill also creates a student loan forgiveness program for individuals who serve at least five school years as a school psychologist, counselor or social worker in a high-need district, and uses a self-updating formula, based on the most recent census data, to allocate funds fairly between urban and rural schools.