According to report, Minnesota schools only have one counselor for every 800 students

Moorhead, Minn. (WDAY TV) - Minnesota isn't keeping up in helping students with mental health issues, that's according to a recent report from Minnesota 2020. In Minnesota, on average, there is one counselor per 800 students. The report says there should be almost four times that number of counselors; WDAY 6 Reporter Kelsey Soby has the story.

Counselors in Minnesota schools are faced with a major challenge, how to balance more work, with less time and less help. The Minnesota 2020 report shows student's mental health needs are rising, while more counselors are being cut out of school budgets, because unlike in North Dakota, they are not mandated in Minnesota schools.

Not only that but counselors are also being passed new responsibilities like facilitating standardized testing, monitoring halls and lunchrooms and more.

Lisa Karch is a counselor at Reinertsen Elementary in south Moorhead. She says she meets with 40 to 50 kids a day individually and in small groups. This year she will be the only counselor for 903 students.

Karch says she doesn't have time to introduce herself in all the classrooms, and feels she's hardly scratching the surface with students' needs. She says some teachers have begun trying to take care of cases themselves because they now how busy she is.

Tags: reporter stories, k-12 education, kelsey soby, news, minnesota, moorhead