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Student well-being budget adds converted health and social-work positions; some supports remain unfunded
Summary
The Department of Student Well-being budget converts several grant-funded health and social-work roles to full-time staff while leaving an instructional facilitator for student engagement on an unfunded list.
The Howard County Board of Education heard Thursday that the Department of Student Well-being'which covers counseling, psychological services, social work, home-and-hospital services and health services'includes several targeted staffing changes in the superintendent's FY26 proposal.
At the presentation, staff said the proposed budget converts two school social workers from grant-funded to regular, system-funded positions, completing a five-year roll-out of school social-work staffing begun in prior cycles. The budget also transitions two nurses and two health assistants from contracted roles into full-time HCPSS positions; staff described that move as budget-neutral because the contractual savings offset conversion costs.
The division noted an additional counselor for Guilford Park as part of the proposed staffing, and listed the addition of an instructional facilitator focused on student engagement as an unfunded priority.
Board members pressed staff on pupil personnel worker (PPW) caseloads and on the allocation of PPW and other pupil support staff across schools. Staff said PPWs typically cover about three schools each and that assignments are made by student need and enrollment, with specialized staff supporting unhoused students, transitions and other higher-need cases.
The division's presenters said that while counselor, psychologist and social-worker headcounts have increased incrementally over recent years, security and alternative-education staffing needs were among the priorities that remained unmet in the proposal. Staff said they will provide additional detail about long-term staffing plans and performance targets as a follow-up to the board.
One board member asked the division to return with an explicit multi-year staffing plan that estimates desired staffing levels for counselors, social workers and other pupil-support staff and the cost of reaching those levels.
