{"id":652883,"date":"2026-05-19T18:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652883\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:47:11","slug":"taylor-richey-has-been-named-ddoes-behavioral-health-pro-of-the-year-the-latest-from-wdel-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652883\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Richey has been named DDOE’s Behavioral Health Pro. of the Year | The Latest from WDEL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supporters of student mental health were honored tonight for their work in Delaware schools.<\/p>\n

School counselors, social workers, licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, and school nurses from nearly 20 Delaware schools were recognized during the Delaware Department of Education<\/a>‘s Behavioral Health Professional of the Year<\/a> awards dinner.<\/p>\n

Each nominee<\/a> representing a district or charter school received a $2,000 award from their respective district or charter school in recognition of their work with students.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s 2026 Delaware Behavioral Health Professional of the Year winner is Taylor Richey, a school counselor with the Woodbridge School District.<\/p>\n

Richey received a total of $5,000 from the state and her district as this year\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n

The Woodbridge School District will also receive $5,000 to support the students Richey serves.<\/p>\n

She says it’s an honor to be recognized for her work at the\u00a0Woodbridge School District, as she graduated from the same district when she was a student.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richey also had a message to her fellow nominees.<\/p>\n

“Your work is meaningful and it truly takes a village to support our students and families,” Richey says. “The connections that you make matter and the impact that you make on each child will last a lifetime.”<\/p>\n

Last year, social worker Jaclyn Durant from the Red Clay Consolidated School District was named Behavioral Health Professional of the Year.<\/p>\n

The 2026 District and Charter Behavioral Health Professionals of the Year are:<\/p>\n

Appoquinimink School District: Debra Taylor, school counselor, Townsend Elementary SchoolBrandywine School District: Tina Lombardo, school counselor, Mount Pleasant Elementary SchoolCaesar Rodney School District: Nicole Boris, school counselor, Nellie Stokes Elementary SchoolCape Henlopen School District: Terri Tipton, school social worker, Sussex ConsortiumCapital School District: Heather Barcus, school nurse, Hartly Elementary SchoolChristina School District: Angelique \u201cAngel\u201d Boyce, school nurse, Sarah Pyle AcademyColonial School District: Nicole Irwin, school social worker, John Leach SchoolDelaware Charter School Network: Dawnyel Furlong, school nurse, Sussex AcademyIndian River School District: Denise Parsons, school nurse, Selbyville Middle SchoolLake Forest School District: Jennifer Satterfield, school counselor, Lake Forest Central Elementary SchoolLaurel School District: Logan Downes, school nurse, Laurel High SchoolMilford School District: Angel Mills, school counselor, Morris Early Childhood CenterNew Castle County Vo-Tech School District: Kristan Garofalo, school counselor, Hodgson Vocational Technical High SchoolPOLYTECH School District: Andrea Spence, school counselor, POLYTECH High SchoolRed Clay Consolidated School District: Kelly R. Nichol, school psychologist, Conrad Schools of ScienceSeaford School District: Rhonda Bailey, school social worker, Blades Elementary SchoolSmyrna School District: Dina Pennington, school counselor, Sunnyside Elementary SchoolSussex County Vocational Technical School District: Krista Schirmer, school counselor, Sussex Technical High SchoolWinner \u2014 Woodbridge School District: Taylor Richey, school counselor, Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center<\/p>\n

\u00a0Get WDEL’s top stories sent right to your email.\u00a0\u00a0Click here<\/a> to signup for WDEL’s Afternoon Edition.<\/p>\n

And get breaking news notifications sent right to your mobile device. Click here<\/a> to download the WDEL app \u2013 which gives you easy on-the-go access to WDEL’s stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters of student mental health were honored tonight for their work in Delaware schools. School counselors, social workers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[26821,9693,736,526,97,252,259,260,26823,5964,281506,2603,18569],"class_list":["post-652883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-behavioural-sciences","tag-cognition","tag-disability","tag-education","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-psychological-concepts","tag-psychology","tag-school-counseling","tag-social-issues","tag-social-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}