Red Flag Districts

I went into my 7th year as a school psychologist knowing this school year was going to be different. 

The previous school year I had 100+ assessments. I was spread thin across 3 different programs each with their own unique needs. I had my agency negotiate what schools I’d be working in. I’d be at 2 schools with a lower caseload between the two of them.

It isn’t just about the caseload.

My previous district didn’t want to accommodate my health challenges. The thought of having double the work and double the meetings I’d have the previous year made me panic. 

When I landed in the hospital, I was actually thriving. The doctors kept asking me if I was stressed out. 

Even though I wasn’t feeling stressed out, I’m very glad I prioritized my health. I have a tendency to work past my body’s warning signals.

Turns out I was days away from having a heart attack.

I had the summer to put things in perspective.

I never wanted to work that hard ever again.

I took a cut in pay to prioritize my joy.

In my quest to put myself and my needs first, I ran into a challenge I never encountered before.

A Red Flag District.

If I had experienced this early in my career, I would have left the field entirely.

My goal is to keep school psychologists in the field, so it’s imperative to tell you what to look out for. I’ve worked in a variety of school districts.

How do you identify a red flag district?

There are a variety of ways to identify a red flag district on an interview.

1.      They don’t give you a thorough interview.

My interview in my red flag district was only two questions. How long have I been in the field and can I write reports?

I thought it was odd, but didn’t think anything of it. I’ve been in districts that were desperate before. I’ve had interviews that were straight forward and brief. The major difference in this case that while the interview was brief, they were thorough.

I was too naive to read between the lines in this case. 

Out of all the questions they could have asked me, why ask those two specifically? Once I got into the district I quickly found out. They wanted a:

desk jockey, a person they wanted to chain to a desk who would shut up and follow orders. 

pencil pusher, a person who would rinse and repeat the assessment process.

work horse, a person who takes on the district’s dysfunction and allows their time to be monopolized.

When you encounter a district like this, you’re a commodity used for their own purposes. There is no regard to your unique needs as a school psych and a human being. You’re only purpose is to test kids and meet deadlines. You’ll find out quickly that when you’re in need, they let you drown and blame you for drowning.

During the interview, I was blindsided by the lack of questions from the district. I didn’t have any questions of my own prepared. They told my recruiter everything I needed to know about the job upfront, so I didn’t have many questions. If I could go back in time I’d ask: What are the job expectations? What schools do you expect me to cover? What does your RtI process look like? What are the caseload expectations? Do you have anything that is pending or needs to be prioritized as soon as I start? What tests kits and tests do you want your psychs to use? Bonus points on if you ask about whether they test digitally or use paper protocols? 

Only you can determine what answers are important to you.  If any of these questions can’t be answered or raises the alarm, run for the hills.

2.      They isolate you from your support network.

When the director’s secretary called me out of the blue to have a meeting, that should have been a red flag.

I ignored my gut instinct to ask what the meeting was about because I assumed it was because it was my sick time. The meeting wasn’t about the time I missed. They say when you assume… I’m sure you can fill in the rest.

When the director ambushed me in my office, they couldn’t tell me what their specific concerns were. I asked them point blank what were their concerns and the director’s response was “Hell if I know.” He brought in the admin and she seemed to be at a loss for words.

That told me everything I needed to know about this district.

Those concerns were not about my health in the slightest.

They wanted me to rush things through. Yet the district could not provide me with any updated test kits or working iPads for assessment. They tried to blame me because they let things nearly go into non-compliance.

I should have pushed back, but you can’t when people gang up on you.

Here’s the lesson I learned the hard way:

Make sure you have a witness and an advocate on your side.

You have the right to decline any meeting until you have some form of representation.  

If I was a district employee, I’d decline any meeting until I had a union rep with me. My building had a “red flags” packet in the teacher’s lounge about when to call for a district rep. My exact situation was listed on that page. In fact, 90% of what I had been experienced was on that “red flags” packet.

The district leadership ambushed me because I didn’t have union representation. As a contractor or new staff member, that doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to representation.

As a contractor, you do have your recruiter. Any company worth their salt should have a clinical provider for support. Depending on the state law, you are still entitled to some form of representation. It doesn’t matter whether you are part of the union or not. If you’re a district employee, say you’d like to have a union representative present. They’ll do everything they can to strong-arm you into having a meeting, but continue to hold your ground. This is your right as an employee.

Don’t let them isolate you.

If you’re a contractor, say you’d like to either have your clinical director or recruiter present in the meeting.

Worse case scenario, say you’d like to record the meeting. They are allowed to record as well. They can’t deny that request and if they do, what are they trying to hide?  Follow up every private conversation with an email summarizing what you discussed. Those emails have always been my saving grace.

I can only imagine how that meeting would have gone down if I had a witness in the room. People change their tune when they know you have someone on your side.

3.      They have no idea what the caseload expectations are.

One district couldn’t give me a straight answer on caseload expectations. They continuously dodged the question at every step of the process. I understand that you can never predict how many referrals you’ll get in a school year. Caseloads ebb and flow. Some years you have a flood of referrals and some years it’s pretty quiet.

The lack of clarity spoke to a larger issue.

They likely aren’t tracking this data.

With all the software and data tracking, there’s no way they can’t at least have a reasonable estimate. It’s easy enough to pull up the software and count. If they don’t have an estimate of evaluations, that raises immediate red flags.

Caseload expectations is a standard question that school psychs ask. It’s concerning that they wouldn’t have that information to present on an interview.

What was more concerning that every step of the process after I accepted the job, I couldn’t get a straight answer. My recruiter gave me the directors information to ask. If I have to hunt and beg to get an answer for a simple question, what else am I going to have to beg for?

A lack of answers to simple questions are a sign of a bad communication style and bad management. It’s one thing to say “Let me get back with you” and have them actually follow up. It’s another thing entirely for them to dodge the question.

If you can’t get a straight answer to your questions on an interview, consider looking elsewhere.  

4.      If an assignment sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

One district I interviewed with told me I’d be working part time. Once I signed the contract, they stated I’d be split across 3 different schools. One school a day for 3 days. How does that make sense?

Major red flag!

In my red flag district, they said I’d be working at one school every 12 weeks until the end of the school year. They told me I’d be covering someone’s position at the preschool and at the elementary school. This was why I didn’t ask a lot of questions during my interview.

I thought they were telling the truth.

If I had asked the proper questions during the interview, I would have known that:

• The school psychs in that district are expected to be at two schools.
• The fidelity of RTI implementation varied wildly from building to building.
• The expectation was to just test and place.
• Caseloads were low, but referrals were high.  

On my first day, the director said he was thinking of having me at another school. I should have spoke up about the expectations. There were cases that were already out of compliance by the time I got there. There was a stack of referrals waiting for me.

If they aren’t upfront with what their needs are, that’s a red flag. A district knows that school psychs are in short supply. They should give you as much information about your assignment upfront. You have the right to know what you’re getting into.

No district should feel like a bait and switch.

It’s one thing to ask a question and need a few days for follow up. Even a reminder here and there. It’s another thing to be ghosted by the people in charge.

If you have to fight for every scrap of information or get answers to any questions, that’s a major red flag.

As a school psych, you hold a lot of power. Districts need you more than you need them. There’s a real cost to not having a school psych. Districts get dinged for failing to meet their timelines. You do not need to martyr yourself for a district’s dysfunction.

What to know how to spot a red flag district from a mile away?

Conclusion:

Call me a cynic if you want. I’m no longer signing up for a district’s chaos. Districts work for me, not the other way around. As soon as you step into your power as a school psych, you’ll be b.s. intolerant.

I was sent to this red flag district so that I can tell you what to spot before you get yourself in a bad situation. People aren’t talking about this enough. If this had been my first experience early in my career, this would have soured my taste for the whole field. Thankfully it wasn’t.

I know my value and my worth, and I refuse to work for a district that fails to acknowledge that.

Many early career school psychs leave the field because of bad experiences. I can tell you now that this is not the norm. There’s no perfect district and each district has its own flavor of dysfunction. Every district I’ve worked in up until this point has not be this bad.

You will always encounter the same type of people where ever you go. Only you know what you can and cannot tolerate.  

There’s a difference between chaos and dysfunction.

Dysfunction can be managed, chaos cannot.

Don’t be afraid to walk away from chaos.