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Consultants recommend adding elementary-level counselors to meet court phrasing on 'mental health counselors'
Summary
The recalibration team told the committee that the court's ruling referring to 'mental health counselors' at the elementary level likely maps to the model's existing school counselor role; consultants estimate the change would require about 141.5 additional counselor positions and roughly $13 million in salary cost statewide.
Consultants told the Select Committee on School Finance that the phrase used in the court’s ruling—“mental health counselors at the elementary school level”—appears to map to the evidence-based model’s existing school counselor role, and that funding at the elementary level was not included in Wyoming’s current funding model.
Dr. Larry Pikes summarized the team’s reading of the court language and the implications for the model. He said the 2025 evidence-based (EB) model would likely meet the court’s intent if elementary schools received counselors who provide mental-health-related supports as well as the broader duties of school counseling. “If we use counselors who would provide mental health services and other kinds of services and fund those at the elementary level, we think that probably is what the court intended,” he said.
Consultant estimates: the team said adding one counselor per prototypical elementary school enrollment would require about 141.5 additional counselor FTE statewide, with an estimated salary cost “a little over $13,000,000,” subject to changes in assumed salaries.
Context and constraints: the consultants noted they are not expressing a judicial interpretation but presented their reading to the committee so legislators can choose how to align statutory language and funding. They also said the judge’s order did not explicitly call out middle- or high-school counselors beyond what the model already funds (the model funds counselors at secondary levels at about 1 per 250 students).
Committee response: senators and representatives discussed whether the court meant mental-health-specific clinicians rather than general school counselors. Dr. Pikes said the model’s approach is to fund counselors who can provide both counseling and mental-health supports, but final statutory language and model specifics remain a policy choice for the committee.
Ending: Consultants recommended that the committee consider updating the 2025 EB model to include elementary-level counselors or equivalent mental-health clinicians and that they will refine cost estimates as salary work is completed.
