The 2026 Student Support Wait Index: Where Students Face the Longest Lines for School-Based Support

For millions of students, getting the right support at school can depend on whether the specialists they need are actually available.

School psychologists help evaluate students and identify learning or behavioral needs. Speech-language pathologists provide critical communication services. Counselors support students’ academic, social, and emotional well-being, while special education teachers help deliver individualized instruction and services. When these professionals are stretched across large numbers of students, evaluations can take longer, caseloads grow, and schools have less capacity to provide timely support.

But where are these pressures greatest?

To find out, VocoVision analyzed student-to-provider ratios and special education workforce capacity across all 50 states to create the 2026 Student Support Wait Index, identifying the states where workforce conditions are most likely to contribute to longer waits for evaluations, therapy, counseling, and other school-based support.

Key Findings

• New Mexico ranks No. 1 in the nation for student support wait pressure, earning a score of 88.0 out of 100. Utah, Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma round out the five states where students are most likely to encounter capacity-related delays. At the other end of the ranking, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Maine, and Connecticut have some of the strongest overall student support capacity in the country.
• Specialist shortages rarely exist in isolation. Students receiving special education support may rely on teachers, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, counselors, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and other professionals, meaning shortages in one area can create bottlenecks across the broader support process.
• School psychologist availability varies dramatically by state. NASP recommends one school psychologist for every 500 students, yet the national ratio was approximately 1,065 students per psychologist during the 2023-24 school year.
• Some states face especially severe school psychologist shortages. New Mexico, Alabama, and Mississippi each have more than 7,500 students per school psychologist, while Oklahoma has nearly 4,000 students per psychologist.
• Speech-language pathologists are also managing heavier-than-recommended workloads. ASHA’s 2024 Schools Survey found a national median actual caseload of 50 students per school-based SLP, compared with a median manageable caseload of approximately 40 students.
• Indiana reports the heaviest SLP caseload among states with sufficient survey data, at a median of 78 students per SLP. Texas follows at 65, Tennessee at 63, while Florida, Kentucky, and Louisiana each report median caseloads of 60.

States Where Students Are Most Likely to Face Longer Waits for Support

States with the Highest Student Support Waits

1. New Mexico

New Mexico ranks No. 1 in the 2026 Student Support Wait Index with a score of 88.0 out of 100.

• The state is tied for the worst school psychologist availability in the country,with NASP reporting more than 7,500 students for every school psychologist—at least 15 times the organization’s recommended ratio of 500:1.
• New Mexico also has just 4.6 special education teacher FTEs for every 100 students receiving IDEA services, the seventh-lowest level among states with available data, meaning its special education workforce is also relatively thin compared with the size of the population it serves.
• Counselor availability is somewhat stronger by comparison, but still strained: at approximately 406 students per school counselor, New Mexico has the 14th-highest student-to-counselor ratio in the country and remains well above ASCA’s recommended 250:1 ratio.

2. Utah

Utah ranks second nationally, receiving an access pressure score of 86.1.

• The state has approximately 1,971 students per school psychologist, nearly four times NASP’s recommended ratio.
• Counselor capacity is also stretched, with approximately 468 students for every school counselor.
• Utah additionally has about 4.5 special education teacher FTEs per 100 students receiving IDEA services, placing further pressure on the educators responsible for supporting students with disabilities.

3. Florida

Florida ranks No. 3 with a Student Support Wait Index score of 84.4.

• There are approximately 2,023 students for every school psychologist in the state, more than four times the level recommended by NASP. Florida also has roughly 425 students per school counselor.
• Special education staffing is similarly strained, with approximately 4.8 special education teacher FTEs per 100 IDEA students.
• Speech and language services provide another indication of workload pressure. ASHA’s 2024 Schools Survey found a median actual caseload of 60 students among reporting school-based SLPs in Florida, compared with a national median manageable caseload of 40.

4. Alabama

Alabama places fourth in the ranking with a score of 84.0.

• Like New Mexico, Alabama has one of the country’s most extreme school psychologist shortages. NASP reports more than 7,500 students for every school psychologist in the state.
• Alabama also has approximately 401 students per school counselor and about 5.5 special education teacher FTEs for every 100 IDEA students.
• ASHA’s school survey adds another piece to the picture, reporting a median SLP caseload of 55 students among Alabama respondents.

5. Oklahoma

Oklahoma rounds out the five states under the greatest student support pressure, scoring 82.0.

• The state has approximately 3,968 students for every school psychologist, one of the highest ratios in the country.
• Oklahoma stands out even more sharply for special education teacher capacity. The state has approximately 2.8 special education teacher FTEs per 100 students served under IDEA, equivalent to roughly one teacher for every 36 students receiving special education services.
• School counselors serve approximately 356 students each, while ASHA reports a median SLP caseload of 54 students among Oklahoma respondents.

Where Is Access to Student Support Strongest?

1. New Hampshire — No. 50

New Hampshire has the lowest overall access pressure in the study, with approximately 712 students per school psychologist and 186 per counselor. It also stands out for its strong special education workforce, with roughly 14.6 special education teacher FTEs per 100 IDEA students.

2. New York — No. 49

New York combines comparatively strong specialist availability with one of the lowest reported SLP workloads in the country. The state has around 545 students per school psychologist, 305 per counselor, and a median school SLP caseload of just 32 students.

3. New Jersey — No. 48

New Jersey also performs well across several workforce measures, with approximately 660 students per school psychologist and 290 per counselor. Its special education staffing is comparatively strong at around 8.4 teacher FTEs per 100 IDEA students, helping place it among the states with the least overall access pressure.

Why Timing for Support Matters

Areas facing overlapping shortages that can create bottlenecks across the student support process, putting more pressure on existing staff and caseloads while giving districts less flexibility as they work to meet required timelines for evaluations and services.

Every student deserves the chance to receive the support they need when they need it, no matter their ZIP code. That makes workforce capacity particularly important. When schools cannot recruit enough professionals, existing staff may inherit larger caseloads, scheduling becomes more difficult, and systems have less flexibility when demand increases. The impact can be especially significant in rural areas or hard-to-staff districts, where hiring a local specialist may already be challenging.

By connecting students with qualified professionals remotely, teletherapy and virtual school-based services can help districts broaden their recruiting reach, supplement existing teams, and provide support in communities where in-person specialists may be difficult to find.

Explore VocoVision’s staffing solutions and teletherapy services for your school or browse teletherapy school specialist roles to start empowering students today.

Methodology

VocoVision created the 2026 Student Support Wait Index to identify the states where limited specialist and special education workforce capacity may make students more likely to experience delays accessing school-based support. All 50 states were evaluated using three nationally comparable indicators:

Student-to-School-Psychologist Ratio — 45%

• The number of public school students per school psychologist was sourced from the National Association of School Psychologists’ 2023-24 workforce data.
• States with more students per psychologist received higher access pressure scores.
• School psychologists received the largest weighting because they frequently play a central role in student evaluations, identification, behavioral and mental health services, intervention planning, and special education eligibility processes.
• NASP recommends approximately one school psychologist for every 500 students.

Student-to-School-Counselor Ratio — 30%

• Student-to-school-counselor ratios were sourced from the American School Counselor Association’s 2024-25 state data.
• States with more students per counselor received higher scores.
• ASCA recommends a student-to-counselor ratio of approximately 250:1.

Special Education Teacher Capacity — 25%

• Special education teacher capacity was based on U.S. Department of Education IDEA data, measuring the number of full-time-equivalent special education teachers employed for every 100 students ages 5 through 21 receiving services under IDEA Part B.
• The measure was inverted for scoring, meaning states with fewer teachers relative to their special education populations received higher access pressure scores.

Scoring

Each indicator was converted into a 0-to-100 percentile score based on the state’s position relative to other states. The normalized scores were then weighted and combined to create the final Student Support Wait Index score. A higher score represents greater student support access pressure and workforce conditions that may increase the likelihood of longer waits.

The index should not be interpreted as a measurement of the average number of days or weeks students wait in each state. Wait times can vary significantly between districts, services, students, and individual cases, and there is currently no single nationally comparable dataset measuring average school-based service wait times across all 50 states.

Additional Validation

VocoVision also reviewed state-level school speech-language pathologist caseload data from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s 2024 Schools Survey. ASHA publishes state caseload figures only where at least 25 respondents provided sufficient data, meaning comparable results were available for 32 states.

Because complete 50-state coverage was unavailable, SLP caseload was not included directly in the overall index. Instead, it was used as a secondary measure to assess whether states experiencing broader workforce pressure also tended to have heavier speech-language pathology caseloads.

Sources

• National Association of School Psychologists, 2023-24 School Psychologist Workforce Data
• American School Counselor Association, 2024-25 Student-to-School-Counselor Ratios
• U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B Personnel Data
• U.S. Department of Education, 47th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of IDEA
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2024 Schools Survey: SLP Caseload and Workload Characteristics

Note: Alabama, Mississippi, and New Mexico were reported by NASP as having more than 7,500 students per school psychologist. These states were therefore assigned equal maximum pressure for this portion of the analysis rather than treated as having precise ratios above 7,500. Massachusetts’ published special education teacher value was suppressed, so its overall score was calculated using the available indicators with weights proportionally adjusted.