When Dawn Orsaeo dropped her son Gabriel off at preschool, the boy would usually cry because he didn’t want his mother to leave. For much of the day, the three-year-old would remain upset, often refusing to play with the other kids.
The boy’s preschool, however, takes part in a unique county-funded program that provides mental health counselors to a small number of Orange County childcare centers.
The counselor helped Gabriel overcome his separation anxiety and enjoy the daily activities.
“Slowly but surely, he’s come out of his shell. Now he runs in there, and he’s excited to go to school and have all his little friends,” Orsaeo said.
Since 2021, Orange County has invested $724,000 to $1.5 million a year to bring mental health counselors to 30 childcare centers. This year, it is spending $2 million and is working to help an additional 23 centers. There are more than 650 childcare centers in the county.
The program’s goal is to reduce the number of young children kicked out of preschools for bad behavior. Every day about 250 children are expelled or suspended from childcare centers in the United States, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Children of color and those with disabilities, including autism, are kicked out at a higher rate than white youngsters and kids without disabilities, the association said.
The counselors in Orange’s program sit in on classes, offer teachers guidance, identify developmental delays in children, suggest follow-up evaluations and share with parents strategies to help their children at home.
“Having someone with mental health experience, you can’t put a dollar value on that, especially in today’s environment, when funding in every area is drying up,” said Pat Cronon, owner of Hand ‘n Hand Child Enrichment Center, the Orlando preschool that Orsaeo’s son attends.
The counselors are provided by Kinder Konsulting & Parents Too, a Winter Park mental health practice. They spend 10 hours a week in each of the schools.
Counselor Erica Rohlfing has 3-year-old Gabriel point to the picture that represents the emotion he is feeling shortly after he arrives in a classroom at Hand ’n Hand Child Enrichment in Orlando at the start of the day on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)
The program was initially funded with federal COVID-19 relief money and administered by the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County, a state agency. That agency aimed to help students who’d been at home transition back to preschool.
“A lot of them had been in those little pods, we call them, like a year or two when everybody was isolated and then coming into an environment where you have to learn how to socialize with your peers,” said Latonya Pelt, director of Welbourne Nursery and Preschool in Winter Park, which takes part.
At the end of 2021, the county took over the program. This year, it is working to bring counselors to the county’s Head Start centers, which offer subsidized childcare to low-income families.
“Unfortunately, a lot of kids, if they’re experiencing significant behaviors, they’re asked to leave childcare programs,” said Kristen Kutudis, clinical director at Kinder.
The counselors try to identify the underlying causes of a child’s problematic behaviors. They have helped children get autism and other diagnoses and then needed services, Kutudis said.
“A lot of our kids might have challenging things going on where there are developmental delays or things that might be identified as needing additional support,” Kutudis said. “So the consultants can help the teachers communicate that to the parents.”
Shortly after Michelle Lewis enrolled her daughter at Welbourne, the school’s counselor met to discuss the 3-year-old’s behavior in class.
Counselor Rhonda Battaglia said she noticed Lewis’ daughter got easily frustrated, had trouble communicating what upset her and sometimes hit other students. Battaglia also observed the child was having trouble stacking blocks and holding a pencil the way she should at her age.
She suggested that the child could benefit from speech, behavioral and occupational therapies and gave Lewis therapists who took her insurance.
“They are just trying to get her help, you know, intervene before she gets to elementary school. You don’t want to wait,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she was not aware such therapies were an option and is now working to make appointments for her daughter.
During classes at Welbourne, Battaglia uses a Tucker the Turtle puppet to show the young children how to deal with upsetting emotions. When Tucker is upset, instead of hitting and yelling, he tucks into his shell, takes a big breath to calm down and then thinks of better ways to express himself.
“If you learn that as a kid, it becomes second nature, like walking, running, jumping, riding a bike,” she said.
The counselor also works to support preschool teachers, who are in demanding yet low-paying jobs.
“Any support you can get as a preschool teacher is really crucial. It’s such a hard job. It’s physically demanding. It’s emotionally demanding. Somebody always wants something all day long,” Battaglia said.
Orsaeo said the counselor at her son’s preschool helped him adjust to preschool and talk about his feelings.
“I’ve said to him, ‘Are you sad today?’ And he’ll go, ‘No I’m mad right now.’ So he will be able to express exactly how he feels, and that’s because she’s been able to help him understand the differences,” Orsaeo said.
The counselor picked up on his challenges that might not have been noticed at annual physicals with his pediatrician, she added.
Early childhood mental health consultant Rhonda Battaglia, right, and preschool teacher Yamil Ayala, left, work with preschoolers at Welbourne Nursery and Preschool in Winter Park, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
“For someone to see the child every single day and see repetitive behaviors or things that kind of stand out that might not be quote-unquote normal, they can really step in and have some of those sensitive conversations with parents and come from a place of caring,” she said.
The county would like to expand the program to every childcare center in Orange. But for now that is cost prohibitive, said Anne Marie Sheffield, senior program manager for Orange County’s Mental Health and Homelessness Division.
Reducing problematic behavior in young children means fewer preschool expulsions and that young children can learn and prepare for kindergarten, Sheffield said.
“Those early years set the tone for learning throughout the lifetime,” she added. “There’s a huge impact when relationships are disrupted, changing centers, having a different teacher, all of those are disruptions at a point where it is most critical.”
