Due to unfunded mandates of public education testing, many Oklahoma schools are using their school counselors as building test coordinators and test administrators, a practice Sen. Mary Boren says needs to stop. 

The Norman democrat and certified school counselor filed Senate Bill 1381 to protect school counselors from being pulled away from their official duties to help with testing.

 “The work school counselors do cannot be filled by other staff and they should no longer be expected to meet the unfunded mandate of high stakes testing,” Boren said. “The State Department of Education’s 2020 budget request includes $19 million for a School Counselor Corps, due to the state’s high student-to-counselor ratio, which at 421-to-1 far exceeds the 250-to-1 recommendation by the American School Counseling Association. Oklahoma’s schools are facing a critical shortage of counselors, so I don’t understand how administering high stakes testing has overshadowed school counselors’ vital responsibility of addressing the mental health needs of students.”

Under SB 1381, school districts would be prohibited from using school counselors as building test administrators, district test coordinators or test administrators beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. 

The state budget for testing for FY’19 was $7.5 million and $9.6 million for FY’20. Boren said most of those funds go to the state assessment vendor rather than to schools to hire additional staff.