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Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson released her budget on April 24, and, since then, WW has considered some of the programs that would vanish or see significant constraints if her proposal becomes reality.
One of the proposed cuts is especially noteworthy because it has inspired a mutiny among the other four county commissioners.
THE PROGRAM: Since 1969, Multnomah County’s school-based mental health providers have helped students across the Portland area. This year, the program operates in six school districts—Centennial, David Douglas, Gresham Barlow, Reynolds, Parkrose, and Portland—and it served 737 students in fiscal year 2024.
Therapists work with students who have diagnosable mental health conditions, though the level of need varies. They also conduct screenings for suicide risk and engage in crisis management while trying to reduce such barriers as “stigma, cost and transportation,” according to a program description. The program also provides culturally specific outreach and treatment; about half the clients served are students of color.
Jedidiah McClean, a licensed clinical social worker at Franklin High School, said at a commissioners meeting May 8 that student need has spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic. It can already take months, he said, for Portland-area kids to gain access to therapy, which can inflame mild symptoms into more severe crises, also resulting in worse school performance and lower attendance for affected youth.
“We have far too few providers to meet the needs of the growing number of adolescents,” McClean said during public testimony. “Cutting these positions may save the county a little money right now, but it will cost so much more in the long run when we think in terms of lifetime health outcomes, incarceration, suicide rates, and lost productivity in the workforce.”
THE CUT: Vega Pederson proposes to ax six therapists, who constitute the equivalent of 4.18 full-time positions. (In a February budgeting exercise, the county health department recommended scrapping the entire program.) In total, their positions cost the county $661,457. There are 23 therapists at schools right now, and the six cuts would constitute 26% of the total. Most school-based mental health providers are part time because they don’t work full weeks or summer breaks.
One coverage position (filling in for therapists who are out) on limited-duration status is also not being renewed, according to two current county employees who spoke to WW on background.
Vega Pederson says the cuts are meant to improve the financial stability of the program, which faces a $1 million loss in external funding this coming year. “My budget recommends that we use this next year to uncover ways to increase business rigor so that this program is more self-sustaining in times of financial uncertainty while also keeping services available to as many children as possible,” she says.
The therapists set to lose their jobs currently work in two districts: Centennial School District and Portland Public Schools. On the chopping block: CSD’s two Spanish-speaking therapists and four therapists at PPS, including one Spanish-speaking one. The therapists in CSD serve Centennial, Oliver and Park Lane middle schools. A May 6 email to families in PPS said the proposed cuts would affect George Middle School as well as Benson, Cleveland and Franklin high schools.
The county says if these cuts go through, it could redistribute therapists across schools. CSD spokeswoman Christine Andregg says school districts have been notified “that staffing decisions will be based on need” and the county does not plan to finalize them until July. “Until we have more information on how staffing decisions will be made or adjusted, it is challenging to fully understand the impact these cuts will have on Centennial students,” Andregg says.
But she adds that even reassignment of staffing could be disruptive for students’ mental health. “Having a stable set of consultants staffing our schools means they can build relationships with students and families over time that strengthen the success of mental health supports.”
WHO WANTS TO SAVE IT: The proposal to cut the mental health positions has caused a stir at commissioners meetings in the weeks since the chair’s proposal. Advocates have won the support of all four commissioners, who have expressed their intention to bring the school-based providers back.
It’s unusual for commissioners to band together to defend a line item in the chair’s budget. But Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards says with such unanimity on the board, she believes the cuts won’t happen.
“I do think that the fact that they’re eliminated in the chair’s budget is significant,” she tells WW. “However, for the last month a majority of the commission has indicated they want to and intend to add the positions back into the final budget.”
The most public attempt thus far to save the positions has come from Commissioner Megan Moyer, who released a proposal May 9 to restore the six jobs by cutting two others—at the highest levels of county government. She proposed eliminating a deputy chief of staff in the chair’s office and a deputy chief operating officer in the office of the chief operating officer (a job currently vacant) to save $693,179.
This article has been updated to make clearer that individual therapists are slated to be cut, but other therapists may be reallocated to the schools they currently serve.