The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of one school psychologist per every 500 students. In North Carolina, however, the current ratio is 1:1956— nearly four times larger than the recommendation. However, on Feb. 13, the state was awarded over $11 million in grants to improve the ratio. The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant will provide funds to NC over the course of four years, specifically targeting the retention of school psychologists and the availability of mental health services in rural communities.
The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant will provide North Carolina with $4.8 million for the NC School Psychology Internship Program (NCSPIn). Megan Cardin, the School Psychology Consultant within the NC Healthy Schools section of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), explains that the grant “seeks to create 10 paid school psychologist internship positions each year and place them in high-need districts.” Once placed in a district, the interns will be able to gain hands-on experience in the field without bearing the financial burden of an unpaid internship— an issue that is prominent in the field.
The other grant that North Carolina was recently awarded funding from was the School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH) Grant, which will provide $6.4 million to the NC School Psychologists Supporting our Students (SoS) project. “Project SoS, which is funded by the SBMH grant, allocates funds to high-need districts to offer recruitment and retention bonuses to school psychologists,” noted Cardin. “It also provides tuition, fees and a stipend for school district employees who attend a graduate program in school psychology and return to serve their district as a school psychologist.” Additionally, the project provides professional development for already trained psychologists, highlighting a focus on the current workforce alongside a commitment to assisting prospective psychologists.
The need for programs such as those funded by the grants has become increasingly apparent in North Carolina, with 20 school districts in the state having no school psychologist on staff and mental health issues remaining on the rise. According to data from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 40% of high school students reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness, and 10% attempted suicide. While these numbers are certainly concerning, there are simply not enough school psychologists to handle the crisis. This realization led NCDPI to apply for the grants in the fall of 2025. Cardin explained how “The NC Healthy Schools team at DPI saw this as a great opportunity to support our continued efforts to grow the school psychology workforce, as well as increasing students’ access to mental health interventions.” The team promptly decided to pursue the funding.
When the grant programs reopened, the US Department of Education restricted the scope of the funding, limiting it to high-need school districts. In response, NCDPI identified specific districts most in need of assistance within their proposals. “We considered factors including school psychologist-to-student ratios, county rates of child poverty, county suicide rates, rates of psychiatric diagnoses among youth and school safety data,” notes Cardin. The team also included districts impacted by Hurricane Helene in their proposals, as such areas have residents who are still recovering from the traumatic storm. Cardin emphasizes that, “Every school district in NC would benefit from greater access to school psychologists, but we are using these funds to focus on areas that currently demonstrate the greatest needs.” While a large portion of the districts identified as in need of the support are located in rural areas, the rest of the state has not gone unnoticed in its fight for improved mental health services.
In Wake County, educators realize the need for more funding and are hopeful that the grants will benefit the state as a whole, including those not directly benefiting from the programs. Green Hope High School’s psychologist, Daniel McGrogran, reveals burnout due to understaffing as a major factor in the recruitment and retention issues targeted by the grants. “When I first started in this field, I can remember going to conferences where the speakers stated that by the year 2020, over half of the school psychology field will be retiring or at retirement age, leaving a massive hole in the profession but also placing significant burdens on school systems,” he admits. “Burnout is also a factor across education roles, so competitive compensation and sustainable caseloads matter for keeping experienced psychologists in schools.” The dwindling workforce, combined with the stress of the job and compensation issues have left school psychologists overworked and prone to burnout.
McGrogan also noted how, during his required internship, he observed other interns struggle to handle the full-time demands of the job without the pay. “Training requires graduate-level preparation, plus a full-year internship, and unpaid or low-paid internships can be a real barrier for many people.” Issues such as burnout and the lack of financial support during internships are precisely why programs like the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant were deemed necessary by NCDPI.
While there are many ways in which the field needs improvement if it hopes to see a rise in prospective school psychologists, McGrogran believes the grants are a step in the right direction. “When school psychologists are spread across multiple schools, we have less time for prevention and day-to-day mental health support. If statewide efforts increase the workforce—especially by strengthening training and retention—it helps districts keep psychologists in schools more consistently, which can mean more check-ins, small-group support and faster connection to services for students,” he explains. If staffing is increased as the grants suggest, psychologists will be able to focus on more preventative care rather than only having the bandwidth to respond to the most dire cases. Additionally, the extra resources will allow them to spend more time collaborating with teachers and families, creating relationships that are currently being lost to the overwhelming amount of evaluations that school psychologists lack the support to efficiently handle.
Cardin shares McGrogan’s optimistic view, stating her hope is “that this funding will give us an opportunity to show what a more comprehensive school psychologist role can look like, and how school psychologists can be key in improving student mental health.” She acknowledges that school psychologists possess a variety of skills they often push to the side to handle student evaluations. “Often, when there aren’t enough school psychologists, we end up spending a disproportionate amount of our time engaged in student assessment and don’t get to use our other skills to support students.” Cardin hopes the funding from the grants will encourage more people to pursue a career in school psychology while also giving existing psychologists the resources to effectively reach students without risking burnout. She hopes that these resources will help make NC a place where school psychologists want to work and that the results of the funding will make a case for continued investments in the field.
During the four years that grants will distribute funds to the state, Cardin and her team plan to collect data on the number of school psychologists receiving intervention training and the caseload of students they are able to serve. Overall workforce numbers are also a major statistic that NCDPI plans to follow during the distribution of the funds.
As the grants go into effect, it is crucial that the state continues to plan to support school psychologists after the four-year period. As Daniel McGrogran emphasized, “Student mental health needs don’t disappear after a grant cycle.” Even so, the funding is a major victory for psychologists, educators and students across North Carolina and hints at a future where students’ mental health is a priority in schools.
