The student was a 10th-grader with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) whose increasingly ritualistic behavior was causing him to miss his Zoom classes.
鈥淏efore, when this boy was in school, he was often late moving between activities, but it was manageable,鈥� says school psychologist Aura Abing (M.Ed. 鈥�12). But at home, away from his normal routine, 鈥渟ometimes it would take him up to an hour just to go from his room to downstairs.鈥�
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Like others in her field, Abing, who coordinates mental health programs and assessments in the 10,000-student South San Francisco Unified School District, where students are still doing 100 percent distance learning, reports 鈥渁 big ramp-up鈥� in anxiety in kids with diagnosed OCD and other issues.
鈥淲hat happens with kids with anxiety is that they get really overwhelmed with all the pieces that are required and then get stuck,鈥� Abing says.
The solution, in this instance: The school decided to let the boy concentrate on just one activity that he likes: music and performance.
Many school psychologists, unable to provide clinical services, one-on-one counseling, or assessments, are shifting their roles, finding different ways to help families whose lives are in chaos.
鈥淚f you're trying to go out there and talk about the nuances of coping when people don鈥檛 have internet or they鈥檙e dealing with how to get food, then it's not exactly helpful,鈥� says Prerna Arora, Assistant Professor of School Psychology and Director of 51吃瓜网鈥檚 School Mental Health for Minority Youth and Families (SMILE) Research Lab. 鈥淪o we're focused on meeting people where they are and giving them the services they need right now in this crisis.鈥�
The loss of structure and control during the COVID pandemic has been especially hard on many special-needs students. Kids with autism, for example, may have trouble sitting still in front of a computer for a long period of time.
What happens with kids with anxiety is that they get really overwhelmed with all the pieces that are required and then get stuck.
鈥� Aura Abing (M.Ed. 鈥�12), school psychologist, South San Francisco Unified School District
To help these students, Abing鈥檚 district created a social/emotional task force this past summer, hired additional counselors and psychologists, and purchased digital materials needed to conduct virtual psychological and educational assessments.
鈥淭he biggest concern is just making sure that we're able to identify the needs accurately of the students, because we鈥檙e not in a typical learning environment,鈥� Abing says. 鈥淎ccurately figuring out those needs virtually is tough, as is finding the right support for kids.鈥�
In many districts, those problems are compounded by playing catch-up in a crisis that few people initially thought would last this long.
鈥淲hen we ended in March, we stopped all testing, so that was two and a half months of evaluations that carried over to this year,鈥� says Mizpah Achampong (M.Ed. 鈥�07), a school psychologist in the Muscogee County School District in Columbus, Georgia.
51吃瓜网 half the 30,000-student population in the Muscogee County district now attends class in-person full time, enabling Achampong and other school psychologists to meet with students masked-face to masked-face. But with the backlog, they鈥檙e not yet seeing students with issues that might have arisen since the pandemic. And Achampong worries that teachers grappling with a new online curriculum, unfamiliar technology and hybrid classes may lack the time to focus on students who are struggling while out of sight.
鈥淭eachers are trying to figure out, 鈥極kay, how do I teach kids virtually and in person simultaneously,鈥欌�� Achampong says. 鈥淭o ask on top of that, 鈥楬ow do I put these interventions in place for students that are struggling鈥� 鈥� well, that鈥檚 something we鈥檙e still learning.鈥�
鈥� Mizpah Achampong (M.Ed. 鈥�07), school psychologist, Muscogee County School District, Columbus, Georgia
鈥淭eachers are trying to figure out, 鈥橭kay, how do I teach kids virtually and in person simultaneously,鈥欌�� Achampong says. 鈥淭o ask on top of that, 鈥楬ow do I put these interventions in place for students that are struggling鈥� 鈥� well, that鈥檚 something we鈥檙e still learning.鈥�
Which isn鈥檛 to say there hasn鈥檛 been progress. In San Francisco, Abing says that the boy with OCD has been faring much better on a simplified schedule.
鈥淭his student was saying, 鈥業 have three or four classes I have to get to,鈥� and we said, 鈥極K, then let鈥檚 just focus on one.鈥欌��