US News

SHRINK RAP ON SCHOOLS

School psychologists are spending more time on paperwork than meeting with students, city Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum charged in a survey released yesterday.

Gotbaum said two reorganizations of the city’s school system in 2003 and 2007 ended up shifting responsibilities from centralized offices to schools.

“While these changes have put decision-making ability in the hands of school-level employees who know students with special needs the best, they have also overburdened school psychologists with administrative responsibilities,” she said.

Of the 100 psychologists surveyed, 91 reported their new case-management duties and the associated paperwork “hinder their ability to complete quality student intervention and evaluations,” Gotbaum said.

Department of Education spokesman David Cantor replied: “The public advocate claims that school psychologists are burdened with too much administrative work, even though productivity is trending upward. Last year, the number of special-education evaluations completed by DOE was up 7.1 percent.”