Educators, unions and parents warn BCPS cuts to psychologists and speech‑language services risk noncompliance and student harm

At the May 20 Baltimore County Public Schools board meeting, several employees, union representatives and parents urged the board to halt or reverse proposed cuts to school psychologists and to address unsustainable speech‑language pathologist (SLP) caseloads, saying the reductions would jeopardize compliance with special‑education timelines and limit services for students.

Dr. Kyle Potter, a licensed psychologist and parent of BCPS students, told the board cuts were decided without input from psychologists or administrators and said the changes would put the system out of compliance with federal and state 60‑day evaluation timelines. He said affected psychologists learned about job changes in a 15‑minute staff meeting and that some staff faced projected salary cuts of 10–20%. “The total saved by cutting these positions is $1,800,000 or 0.06% of the proposed budget,” Potter said, adding that loss of staff would create ongoing coverage gaps for evaluations and services.

Several speech‑language pathologists described high caseloads and burnout. SLPs reported caseloads ranging from 60 to 100 students, required documentation and assessment burdens that can take several hours per student, and that 62% of surveyed BCPS SLPs said they had caseloads of 61–100 students. “We are responsible for each student's IEP meetings… We score, analyze, and write comprehensive assessment reports, which can take 3 to 6 hours each,” one SLP testified. Speakers said virtual contract providers had been used to supplement services but that implementation problems persisted.

Lloyd Allen, representing the teachers' union TABCO, pressed the board to fully fund negotiated labor agreements agreed earlier, saying renegotiation or budget reprioritization would risk staff retention and recruitment.

Jennifer Brigance of the Student Support Network described growing need for basic necessities among students and asked the board to increase funding to partner nonprofits. NAACP Baltimore County education representatives also warned about state and federal funding cuts and asked the board to protect programs and labor contracts.

Several public speakers said service delays are already occurring; one parent said three of her students missed speech and language services for an entire school year. Another commenter said evaluations and IEP timelines were months behind.

Board discussion during later agenda items acknowledged the staffing concerns and invited staff to provide information on monitoring and oversight. Board members asked whether internal audits or performance reviews could examine compliance with special‑education service delivery; internal audit staff said a performance/compliance audit would be possible but that the office’s prior classroom‑level compliance review dated to 1999 and external auditors rotate program audits on multi‑year cycles.

Speakers and board members asked staff to provide more information about MSDE monitoring and the last time MSDE conducted program reviews for special education compliance. Superintendent Dr. Rogers said the district would share that information.

The board did not vote on personnel changes or on restoring positions at this meeting; public commenters urged the board to revisit budget allocations before final adoption.