Johnson County schools are adding therapists and mental health coordinators to increase mental health services for their students, and will soon be able to apply for state funds to bolster those services.
Clark-Pleasant schools hired its own mental health coordinator in May, and Franklin schools plan to do the same. In both districts, voters approved referendums that will increase the amount of mental health spending in schools by raising property taxes. During the upcoming school year, all Indiana public schools will conduct suicide prevention training.
Senate Bill 325 establishes a student and parent support services grant program. It is the first Indiana bill to create a state-funded grant program specifically for mental health for students, said Sen. Michael Crider, R- Greenfield, who authored the bill.
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When it comes to state funding, however, mental health support comes with a catch. Although the bill establishes grant funding for mental health services, parents are required to give consent at each step of the process if a school provides those services for their children using the funding. The bill requires schools to contact parents specifically in cases of a student demonstrating a repeated pattern of aberrant or abnormal behavior, according to the bill.
“The goal for the schools is to reach out to the parents to cooperate and agree with the course of action,” Crider said. “At this level of intervention, it’s more of a medical intervention, and existing state law says before treatment is given, parents have to be notified.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill in May, but the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction, which is organizing the grant program, will use the next year to figure out how much funding the program will have and details about how that funding can be used, Crider said.
The Division of Mental Health and Addiction is required to finalize those plans by June 30, 2020, after which grant funding will start to be distributed. Schools are required to submit detailed step-by-step plans for how they plan to assist students who need therapy services, which must include a conference with the student and their parents and written parental consent before the school can provide services for the student, according to the bill.
Since the bill requires parents to consent to any therapy services their children receive, schools may have to resort to calling the Department of Child Services, commonly known as DCS, as backup if a parent isn’t cooperating or if a student’s home life is causing them mental health issues, Franklin schools Operations Director Jeff Sewell said.
“We’re very communicative with parents if we’re dealing with any challenge with students like that, I don’t know if we’d view it as a hindrance. If anything we’re looking for a parent partnership in helping students” Sewell said.
“I suppose there’s the possibility of a difficult home life, but we’re still not going to do anything with that student that is not with the knowledge and consent of the parents if it came to seeking treatment for the students. If that is failing, then that could be a reason we involve DCS in that situation.”
Schools, however, might not have that option if they choose to accept grant funding established by the bill, and if a parent doesn’t consent to services, a child may be left without help, Crider said.
“As unfortunate as that sounds, that’s how it could end up,” Crider said. “The bill requires a conference between the school and the family. They have to agree going forward as to what types of services will be included. Obviously, it’s a possibility the parents don’t agree and say the child is fine.”
If parents do consent and a student is at risk for self-harm, schools can refer the student to a mental health agency, such as Adult and Child, which provides therapy but charges families who are above the poverty line. Since therapists can give students treatment, they can charge medical insurance, Crider said. Clark-Pleasant schools, however, plan to add school based-therapists who are trained to deal with students who are at risk of harming themselves or others, who would be employees of the school rather than an agency that would charge insurance.
Franklin schools also plan to add school-based therapists, but Sewell said those therapists may charge insurance, although the district has not solidified the details of the positions yet.
The district would use referendum dollars to cover therapist salaries as well as administrative costs, such as the cost of doing paperwork and scheduling, Sewell said.
While schools will have the advantage of qualifying for grant funding from the state, the requirement of schools to seek consent from parents may hinder students in some case, said Adam Baker, spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Education.
“Regarding this bill, one of the concerns was what does parental involvement look like and will lack of it hinder what students need?” Baker said in an email. “For instance, let’s say a student needs services every month and a parent has to be at those appointments. What happens when a parents can’t make an appointment every month? Does this mean the student cannot receive those services? And if the student cannot receive those services, what does this do for his or her well-being?”
Parents at Clark-Pleasant schools are encouraged to be involved with their students’ school lives, whether it’s knowing how they’re faring academically or mentally, said Connie Poston, the district’s mental health coordinator.
“The more parents can be involved the better,” Poston said. “In every situation where students are in danger or putting another student in danger, we always call home or report to the Department of Child Services as needed. Especially with suicide, if there are any warning signs or anything about being potentially suicidal or hurting someone else, we always report home.”
Including parental consent in the process was necessary to get enough votes to pass the bill in both the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate, Crider said.
“There was a pretty big push back from both chambers around the idea that schools could take action without parental consent or involvement,” Crider said. “If parents are not supportive of treatment, schools have some flexibility as to what they do in terms of the students not being enrolled in the school anymore. That’s kind of the challenge that gives me the most pause. Sometimes students who have the most difficulty come from families with the most dysfunction. There will be times when parents don’t want their children to receive the help they need. That will be a dilemma.”
Cases of parents not cooperating should be handled individually and there is no one answer on how to help students in those situations, said Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis.
“There was an overall feeling that parents had to be involved from start to finish and I credit Sen. Crider for being flexible and for being open and listening to the concerns of members of the legislature in getting the bill through,” Merritt said.
