After my grueling internship, I took 2 years off before going back into school psychology.
Southern California is highly competitive and I lived in a rural area with no job prospects. I could have waited for a position to pop up or I could move to Oakland in Northern CA and get a guaranteed job. It’s the same thing that happened when my husband and I moved from CA to Washington. I could sit around waiting for things to happen or I could take the sure bet.
I’m always going to take the sure bet.
I had a specific reason for jumping into being a contracting school psych vs. being a district psych. Since I have experience doing both, I wanted to address the misconceptions. I also wanted to help you determine if contracting would be the right choice for you?
But let’s address the outdated testing kit in the room, shall we?
There’s a little bit of a stigma surrounding contractors. When someone said they were a contractor, they were met with disdain. That has gotten better in my experience. Districts prefer in-district candidates for a variety of different reasons. Some people become contractors for a variety of different reasons. I want to break some myths and give my thoughts on why you may consider becoming a contractor.
#1: You have no benefits, health care, pension, no paid holidays and no summers off.
This myth is only partially true. You do not get paid for holidays and there is no pension. Most companies have a variety of pay structures that can be beneficial for employees.
Some agencies count you as a W-2 employee and you can opt into their 401K and health benefits packages. As a 1099 contractor, you pay your own taxes, health benefits, and liability insurance.
As a contractor, you won’t get a state pension. You can research whether you’d rather make more money upfront or sock it away for retirement. If you’re diligent about saving, you can put a portion of your check into your own retirement account.
You do get summers off when your contract ends and you don’t take another job during the summer. If you get hit with emergencies or lose a source of income over the summer, this can be a little rough. There are agencies that offer year round pay, but they’ve been harder to come by lately. You can set aside money each month during the school year to offset your summer costs. I would recommend setting up an account that you don’t have easy access to as a Summer fund.
#2: You are immediately disqualified for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The biggest case for being a district-hire is Public Service Loan Forgiveness. People working in the public service sector or non-profits can have their loans forgiven after 10 years of repayment.
There is a clause on the website that states:
The qualifying employer can sign the certification if either of the following is true:
- The borrower is or was employed under a contract or by a contracted organization in a position that, under applicable state law, cannot be filled by a direct employee of the organization, or
- The borrower is or was providing services that, under applicable state law, cannot be provided by a direct employee of the organization.”
I was able to get my previous school district to sign off on this, including the year I was a contractor. I can’t speak to the effectiveness. I haven’t sent my forms from my other contracting districts. There’s a case to be made though. Our job is highly specialized.
You might as well ask and see what they say. The loan payments and employment don’t need to be consecutive. This allows flexibility and freedom, even if it takes longer. If your life is going through massive upheaval, contracting may be a good option .
It doesn’t have to be forever. Just for enough time to get established and stabilized while your life settles down.
#3: You get treated better as a contractor vs. a district employee.
I can’t prove or disprove this myth. Most of that is dependent on the school and your building needs. Some districts don’t require contractors to work past their contracted hours. You may not need to go to school functions or staff meetings. Some districts will pay you if you need to stay past hours, but most don’t want to pay overtime.
If you’re a district employee, you’ll have expectations that you have to meet.
You’ll probably have to stay after school for staff meetings, even if they aren’t relevant for you. You need to get a certain amount of professional development hours and go to any trainings and PD days. If you’re a district employee, you run the risk of losing money if you don’t attend staff trainings. I got professional development hours attending conferences, but that’s not a guarantee.
There’s not much of a difference of treatment of a contractor vs. a district employee. As a contractor you have less obligations and expectations to follow.
#4: Contracting is for school psychs who couldn’t hack it in an actual school district.
There might have been a time where this was mostly true. Some agencies don’t vet school psychologists the way they should. Most recruiters have no idea what skills are needed to be a good school psychologist.
We had three school psych in one school year who were completely awful. They had terrible reports that were riddled with mistakes and inconsistencies. One of the school psychs was even rumored to be sleeping in her office.
This is not the case for all contractors. There are plenty of district direct hires that are bad as well. There’s bad actors in every field, it doesn’t matter how they got hired.
Some people look good on paper.
That being said, there are many pros and cons to being a contractor.
Pros
- You and your family move around a lot. You have a guaranteed position working with an agency.
- Job hunting is stressful and you would rather have someone do that piece for you.
- You need a flexible working schedule that can’t be accommodated as a district employee.
- You want to do remote work and need an established company that has the infrastructure to support it.
- You want to use the agency as stepping stone to contracting for yourself. (make sure your agency doesn’t have a buy-out clause)
Cons
- You run the risk of a district hiring a direct candidate at the last minute.
- They may not renew your contract.
- You may have to buy out your contract if you want to work directly with the district next year.
- A non compete clause means you can’t work directly with a good district the following school year.
- Your pay may be outrageously low. Paying for benefits and retirement may eat into your bottom line.
Ultimately, we live in a time where we as school psychologists have a lot of options of what we want our work to look like. We could contract directly with districts for higher pay and flexible schedules. We have the power to choose what we want work to look like. As you get more experience, you’ll hit an inflection point and be able to command your own prices.
We’ll be in the position to make districts work for us, not the other way around.
Call me arrogant if you want (my mom sure did), but we’re in high demand. We have negotiating power to command what we deserve.