Trouble finding school psychologists has led Lehighton Area School District to contract with Pediatric Therapeutic Services through the end of the 2019-20 to bridge the gap.

On Monday, Lehighton’s school board approved the contract, which calls for psychological services to be provided at $76.50 per hour. PTS charges a two-hour minimum for therapy visits requested by the district.

“We’ve struggled for over a year finding a school psychologist,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said.

“We’ve reached out to colleges and tried a lot of different avenues, but this isn’t a problem unique to us. Almost every district in the state is in the same boat.”

Cleaver said Northern Lehigh also uses PTS and is confident they’ll do a great job for the district.

“We had three psychologists on staff at one point and we are down to one,” he said. “East Stroudsburg just advertised for three of them. They are tough to find.”

According to statistics from the National Association of School Psychologists, the school psychologist to student ratio in this country is estimated to be 1,400 to 1, while the goal, at the high end, is 700 to 1.

Lehighton director David Bradley cast the lone no vote on the contract, telling the administration it should have lobbied the public for help in filling the position.

“We have a lot of smart stakeholders,” Bradley said. “Why didn’t we ask them?”

According to Cleaver, the administration did notify the board of how the advertisement for the psychologist position was being handled and updated the progress along the way.