Tooele School District may lose half of its social workers next year due to expired funding

TOOELE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — The Tooele County School District is reportedly losing several of its social workers due to the lack of funding, as a grant program expires next year.

According to Brett Valdez, the Communications Director at the district, Tooele County School District uses different funding sources in order to hire and employ social workers at their schools. Some of that funding reportedly comes through grants or through federal programs.

For three years, funding for the school district’s social workers came from the AWARE grant, which provides funding for schools to implement mental health programs and allows educational agencies “to build or expand their capacity to advance wellness and resiliency in education.”

Unfortunately, the AWARE grant is a three-year program and is reportedly set to expire next year. Valdez said that the positions hired under that grant will be discontinued and the school workers will be let go when the grant expires.

“Those positions were hired as part of that grant, so as they go through that hiring process, you know, we disclose and let them know how that comes in,” Valdez said, “There’s sometimes ways that you can pull funding from other sources or find other grants to cover some of those things. But with that one going away, that funding source is no longer available to fund that.”

Reportedly, Tooele County School District is actively seeking other funding avenues to continue providing mental health and social work services, but Valdez says that is made difficult by state-wide funding reductions.

Social Worker Reacts

ABC4 also spoke with a social worker, on the condition of anonymity, who may be let go if funding does not go through. They said that four of the six social workers in Tooele County School District were informed their jobs would not be funded after this school year.

According to this social worker, the school district did tell them upon hiring that their employment was a result of the AWARE grant and could be temporary but had made a commitment to sustain funding when it expired.

The social worker alleges that “social workers have been explicitly informed that the district will not fund their attendance at similar [professional development] conferences, with the stated reason being that their reasons will not be maintained next year.”

Valdez said that district officials did recently inform their social workers that funding may not be secured and that changes in funding sources may lead to changes in job positions. He added that staff were informed “so we don’t catch anyone off guard or if they change positions, they understand how that affects their job.”

Additionally, he noted that staff were asked to sign a paper discussing this, which he says was “more or less an acknowledgement.” That paper, in part, reads:

This letter serves as formal notification that your current position is funded for SY26 through a state or federal grant, which is considered a soft-funded source. Soft funding refers to financial support that is not guaranteed long-term and is contingent upon the availability and renewal of external grant funds. As such, please be aware of the following.

• Your position is dependent on the continuation of the grant funding.
• If the grant funding is reduced, discontinued, or not renewed, your position may be subject to modification or non-renewal.
• You will be notified in advance of any changes to your employment status resulting from changes to funding.

Impact on Mental Health Services

Reportedly, these letter and potential uncertainty of future funding have led to concern amongst Tooele County School District social workers, especially after recent tragic events.

The social worker we spoke to cited several areas of concern, including the need for specialized social work services. They said, “It is highly concerning to hear discussions about having school counselors assume the responsibilities of trained and licensed social workers. School counselors do not typically receive the same level of specialized training.”

Another potential area of concern from this social worker is the lack of transparency. They said that Tooele County School District should inform parents that existing mental health and support resources may be discontinued next year.

Additionally, this individual pointed to the impact of staff reduction, stating that the loss of funding will leave one full-time and one part-time social worker to cover Tooele County, compared to six current employees, and lead to “an untenable caseload.”

While Brent Valdez did not provide exact staffing numbers and did not confirm how many social workers could be affected by the loss of funding, he did say mental health remains a priority for the school district.

Valdez said, “It’s obviously a topic and issue that we want to make sure that we continue to learn and stay on top of and provide those services…That is a priority to make sure that we provide the students with the help that they need.”