Lawton Public Schools reacts to Counselor Corps termination

In late July, the Oklahoma Department of Education discontinued their Counselor Corps program, which was created to address the mental health needs of students.

Lawton Public Schools was a part of the program and plan to use their own funds to “fill the gap.”

“Hopefully, some of those funds come back down the road,” Kevin Hime, LPS Superintendent said. “As for the first year, we’re not going to be making any major changes.”

Hime hopes the decision won’t impact the students.

“Long-term, if we have to continue to shift money around, the fact that we can keep that part going using other money means you got to take that other money from somewhere else,” Hime said. “Right now, we think we can make this where it doesn’t affect anything this first year.”

LPS has a program called Project A.W.A.R.E, which promotes youth mental health awareness among schools and communities, according to LPS’s website.

“Its base goal is to provide training for all staff and try to work with the community to form partnerships,” Hime said. “Numbers show that since COVID, we struggled a little more with mental health issues and we needed more services in those areas.”

Both Project A.W.A.R.E and the Counselor Corps have been very successful, Hime said.

“The feedback I get from teachers and administrators is that there’s been a lot of value in those programs, especially the training side of it,” Hime said.

The amount of counselors will remain the same.

“Some of the biggest issues with that is teacher shortage, the lack of applicants,” Hime said. “If we have less counselors it won’t be because of finances, it will be because we don’t have the qualified applicants to hire into those positions.”

Since LPS works with communities to offer mental health services, children in low income households can also use them.

“They work in building community relationships where some of the organizations in the communities will provide those services with no charge,” Hime said. “That’s the purpose of it, to try to build those relationships in the communities.”

Lynn Cordes, Executive Director of Communications at LPS, said they’re trying to change Project A.W.A.R.E’s name.

“We’re entering our last year of Project A.W.A.R.E’s grant,” Cordes said. “From this point on, we won’t be able to say the name because it’s not funding those services.”

“Hopefully we can find ways to continue where we make (mental health) sustainable because they have had a positive impact upon the district,” Hime said.