School Counseling Dream Hits Reality | Ireland News

A bold $5 million pilot aimed to bring one-on-one mental health counseling into schools for kids struggling after COVID, but it stumbled hard—facing a nationwide counselor shortage that left half the slots unused in Year 1 and over 30% in Year 2. Rural schools hit hardest; principals often couldn’t even sign up due to lack of available counselors, and some kids needed more than the six sessions offered. The program also struggled with referrals for deeper issues and rigid rules blocking follow-up care. Despite setbacks, officials still plan to expand—but now eyeing scalable group-based support from education wellbeing practitioners instead. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/655550a6babc6af7