As California cuts school counselors, trained student peers can help fill the gap

Across California, at least 5,000 school employees received preliminary pink slips this spring as districts scramble to close budget gaps caused by falling enrollment and rising costs. Oakland Unified plans to eliminate counselors, case managers and attendance clerks as part of sweeping layoffs to address a $103 million deficit. Counselors and mental health staff are high on the list of cuts across the state.

The timing could not be worse. Across the country, educators are reporting something troubling: Fewer students are showing up to class, and they’re carrying more fear when they do.

A fall 2025 survey from the EdWeek Research Center found that nearly half of educators surveyed say students have expressed increased fear or anxiety related to immigration enforcement. Twenty-four percent reported declines in attendance. Twenty-one percent said more students are seeking counseling support — just as districts implement budget cuts that reduce counselor positions. School counselors, already managing caseloads far beyond recommended ratios, are being asked to do more with less.

As education advocates have warned, this climate of fear continues to take its toll on students’ sense of safety and belonging nationwide. 

Across the country, educators are reporting something troubling: Fewer students are showing up to class, and they’re carrying more fear when they do.

In California, state leaders have taken important steps to protect students, including strengthening safe-haven school policies intended to keep immigration enforcement off campus. These policies matter. They send a clear message about the values of the schools and rights of students.

But policy alone does not regulate a nervous system. It does not calm a student who spends the day at school worried about a peer, parent, family or community member. It does not automatically restore a sense of belonging.

 If students’ ability to show up to school and learn depends on whether they feel safe, then schools must invest in supports that operate inside the daily rhythms of school life aimed at restoring the safety students need to learn. We need to protect professional school counselors from budget cuts, and we need new models that can extend their reach when caseloads are overwhelming. 

One promising approach has been California’s peer-to-peer youth mental health pilot, implemented across eight high schools with funding from the state of California’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative. As EdSource has reported, the peer-support program is showing early gains in student well-being and what can be done in times of tighter budgets.

The model is simple but powerful: Students are trained to serve as peer mentors and wellness ambassadors, operating school-based wellness centers and providing structured support to classmates throughout the day. Peer support is well-established as an evidence-based intervention in the adult mental health space. What is innovative about these models is the firm belief that teens, when supported by a network of caring adults, can provide culturally affirming support and connection.

At Serrano High School in San Bernardino County, one of the eight schools participating in the pilot program, students run the Diamondback Den, a wellness center that offers restorative circles, lunchtime activities and one-on-one peer support. A 12th-grade peer leader at Serrano described leading a bilingual circle for Spanish-speaking students: “They had a place where they could speak in their native tongue and have a good time.” For newcomer students, that kind of space can be more than stabilizing; it can be transformative.

At El Cerrito High School, one first-year student stated that the peer program “gave me more fun and experience in my first year of living in the United States and helped me adapt to life here faster.”

At Oakland Technical High School, a ninth grader applying to become a peer wellness mentor wrote, “I know what it feels like to be in pain, and I don’t want anyone else to go through it alone.” Multiple students there reported that they sought help at the wellness center specifically because it felt safer talking to another student first, before seeking assistance from an adult.

Peer support programs do not replace counselors or psychologists. They extend the ecosystem of care at a moment when that ecosystem is under strain. Schools in the pilot program report that peer counselors help address everyday challenges — conflict resolution, vaping prevention, attendance check-ins — allowing the limited number of school counselors to focus on students with more complex needs. They create entry points. They normalize help-seeking. And critically, they operate during the school day, on school campuses, lowering the threshold for students to ask for support.

Research tells us that when students feel safe and connected, attendance improves and academic outcomes follow. In a climate where often-violent immigration actions are shaping student behavior nationwide, peer-based models of care offer something that legal protections alone cannot: proximity, trust and immediacy.

California is testing what may be one answer to a national challenge. But sustaining and scaling these models will require continued investment. Programs like the peer-to-peer model are funded through the state’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, which will sunset this year, meaning schools could lose both counselors to budget cuts and peer programs to expired funding. As demand for counseling rises and school budgets tighten, peer programs cannot be treated as optional enrichment. They are part of the infrastructure of belonging.

We know what fear does to student attendance, learning and belonging. We know what helps: peer support that meets students where they are. 

California cannot let proven programs disappear at the moment students need them most. State leaders must act now to sustain and fund these models. 

Students are already building the structures that help them feel safe and welcome. We need policymakers to catch up.

•••

Raven Jones-McKinney is the director of peer-to-peer youth mental health at The Children’s Partnership.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author.  

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