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Psychologists to chancellor: Help us do our job

by Jim Callaghan

Apr 24, 2008 12:12 PM

Responding to the presence of more than 100 angry school psychologists at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Queens on April 14, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein promised to hold a public meeting on the excessive and duplicative paperwork overwhelming psychologists, on UFT members being asked by bullying supervisors to cover up violations of special education regulations, and on special needs students not getting the services to which they are legally entitled.

The most heart-wrenching story came from Kimberly Partington of Brooklyn’s Tilden HS, who said she had just filled out a four-page workload dispute. She held the audience in rapt attention with the tales of two students who wanted to kill themselves because they had been raped by relatives; a girl who watched her mother murdered by her stepfather; and another girl who dealt with her demons by slashing herself and burning her arms with cigarettes.

“I love counseling,” Partington said. “I would have gone for an MBA in business if I wanted to deal with paperwork.”

Workload overload

The workload of psychologists ballooned after the Department of Education unilaterally eliminated the position of education evaluator in 2003 and shifted that work to psychologists. Chapter Leader Ann Englesbe said her members’ jobs had become impossible and that they were under strong pressure to cut corners, which she said was “illegal and immoral” and detrimental to the children.

“Stop dumping unreasonable work on psychologists and allow them to use their professional expertise,” Englesbe told Klein. “Do the right thing. The children deserve better.”

After all the speakers were heard, Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan borough president’s representative on the panel, observed, “I have heard these complaints even from my own mother-in-law who is a school psychologist and administrator in Suffolk County. She asks me, what is going on in the city with the school psychologists?”

Sullivan asked Klein for a public meeting where DOE officials with oversight responsibility for the problems would be held to account.

“I’ll be happy to do it,” Klein replied.

Klein also promised the group a meeting with Linda Wernikoff, his deputy in charge of special education. Klein said it was the first he had heard about any of the issues.

The chancellor could not conceal his impatience with the testimony. Asking people to “please line up at that Microsoft,” before correcting himself to say “microphone,” Klein announced that speakers would have one minute to make their case, even though the agenda stated that speakers should be given two minutes. He tried to cut off seven speakers, asking one to limit herself to 30 seconds.

Children robbed of services

“I am trying to be fair,” Klein said, leading one angry psychologist to say, “If he was fair, we wouldn’t have to be here.”

Klein heard from 15 school psychologists who implored him to lift the workload burden that the DOE has imposed on them. Excessive paperwork, one said, was making psychologists “dysfunctional” and stealing time from children in need of counseling.

Maria Ramos of PS 198 in Brooklyn sarcastically recounted how she must now “interface” with her e-mails, after which she prints them, copies them and sends them to colleagues. “I’ve become an office manager,” she said, saying that her students who are stressed out are complaining of stomachaches and headaches because of citywide testing. “I want to be a school psychologist again.”

Denise Carter of MS 272 in the Bronx accused her supervisors of downgrading services for special education students irrespective of what the student’s Individualized Education Program said, resulting in children languishing.

“What a mess! You should be embarrassed,” Carter told Klein to wild applause.

Kids with special needs are being neglected, said Anurag Singh of Boys & Girls HS. He accused the DOE of being “disrespectful and underhanded.”

Harassment complaints

Several psychologists informed Klein that they were being bullied and harassed by supervisors who wanted them to perform like automatons and who asked them to fake paperwork.

Marc Spinrad, a psychologist at Columbus HS, told Klein that psychologists at a meeting at the Bronx Integrated Service Center apparently were told by their supervisors that they didn’t really have to test students at all.

“Just hold a conference and move the papers along,” Spinrad said the psychologists were told. “This was to make it appear as though the DOE was in compliance with federal law. An enlightened society should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. By this standard, the DOE is failing miserably.”

Referring to students who are being shortchanged daily, Stephen Bendich from PS 295 in Brooklyn told Klein: “We need unpressured time and space to help our most vulnerable students who sometimes fail, sometimes kill themselves and sometimes hurt others. We are now doing the entire job of three and four people.”

Bendich contended that the DOE needs to ramp up its hiring of psychologists, guidance counselors and social workers.

“We can’t afford not to do this,” Bendich said. “What kind of people are we if we are not willing to provide for our children, who are our most precious and sacred resources?”

It was clear from the testimony that the psychologists’ complaints were not limited to one school or district.

Robert Rossen of PS 87 in Queens said he now has a caseload of 100 students.

“Very few of our professional skills are being utilized,” he said. “Our responsibilities have doubled.”

Psychologists have filed individual workload disputes with the DOE in recent weeks. Arguing that the chapter as a whole is overworked, UFT Grievance Director Howard Solomon has filed a group workload dispute on behalf of all school psychologists.