Current Status

The Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP) was included in the omnibus FY03 appropriations bill and is slated to receive approximately $32 million in FY03.  While this is about a 3% decrease from the funding that the program received in FY02, it is still good news considering that the program was in jeopardy of being completely cut from the Federal budget.  The inclusion of funds for this program means that school districts that were awarded three-year grants in FY01 and FY02 will continue to receive their funding.  In addition, there will probably be a small amount of money available for new grants in FY03.  For updated information regarding grants for FY03, please refer to the Department of Education’s “Forecast of Funding” webpage: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/grants/forecast.html#Chart3

Thank you to everyone who made phone calls and sent letters of support to their Members of Congress regarding the ESSCP!

Background

The ESSCP, formerly known as the Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Program, is a discretionary grant program that provides grants to school districts to establish or expand comprehensive counseling programs and mental health services through qualified school social workers, school psychologists, and school counselors.

The ESSCP was reauthorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. While the reauthorization expanded the program to include secondary schools, it also included a funding trigger. This funding trigger requires that the program be funded at over $40 million before secondary schools can participate.

Rather than propose an increase in funding for the program so that secondary schools would become eligible, President Bush eliminated the program from his FY03 budget request.  The House Committee on Appropriations followed suit and provided zero dollars for the program in its version of the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations bill.  However, the Senate Committee on Appropriations’ version of the bill flat-funded the program at $32.5 million for FY03.  During the conference between the House and Senate on the omnibus FY03 appropriations bill, the Senate’s dollar amount for this program was accepted.  However, an across the board cut of approximately 2.9% was made to almost all of the education programs, therefore, there was a cut in the final amount of funding the ESSCP will receive in FY03.

For more information, please contact Ann Bradford, NASW Government Relations, at abradford@naswdc.org or (202) 336-8237.