KALAMAZOO, Mich. — New funding is allowing for Western Michigan University to address the shortage of school psychologists.
It's a $650,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The grant will help launch a new program, one that educates school psychologists.
The grant is set for a time period over the next three years. Most of the funds will go towards hiring three new staff members to help run the program.
FOX 17 spoke with Kristal Ehrhardt, one of the leaders behind the expansion.
“Typically, the recommended ratio of school psychologists to students, it was 1 to 1000, and now they’re saying more like 1 to 750. Our ratio in the state is much more significant than that,” Senior Associate Dean Dr. Kristal Ehrhardt said.
FOX 17 previously reported the average ratio of psychologist to students in Michigan is 1 to 1,354.
WMU is hoping to be part of the solution, by increasing the amount of students they can educate.
Roughly 15 to 16 graduate students will be welcomed in. It's all in the name of helping kids at school.
“It’s not unusual, in part due to shortages, for districts you know, a medium sized district, with 3-4 thousand students, to have one school psychologists, or to have trouble filling a position,” Ehrhardt said.
The university will increase the number of students in Michigan graduating from such a program by as much as 50%, according to WMU.
It's welcome news to Amanda Unger, a Ludington-based director of special education.
“What we have experienced, is we have just enough psychologists, or we’re short where they have to pick up other caseloads and things like that. They can’t exercise the full gamut of all the things that they can do,” Amanda Unger, Assistant Director of Special Education for West Shore ESD said.
It's good news for rural areas like Ludington.
“It’s a high flex program. Where they can be virtual,” Unger said.
The program is anticipated to start in the fall of 2027.
