Elementary and Secondary Counseling Improvement Act of 2001, H.R. 1508
Sponsored by Rep. Roukema (R-NJ), this newly-introduced bill authorizes $100 million in grants to start or expand school-based counseling and mental health programs. The bill lists child and adolescent psychiatrists, along with school counselors, school psychologists and school social workers, as qualified providers of mental health services. The movement of more child and adolescent psychiatrists into schools will encourage earlier identification of children and adolescents with mental illnesses and improve outreach to children who would not otherwise seek treatment.
Please let your elected official know you support the passage of this bill. You can go to http://www.congress.org and send your elected officials and email.
Crystal,
Thanks for the heads up! If parents are tired of walking into IEP and 504 meetings, feeling alone and afraid, they should ask for more school social workers. School social workers are student and parent advocates. School social workers will sit with parents at IEP meetings and make suggestions supporting the child and the parent. I’m not talking about academic counselors who decide which classes a child should take and must split their time to work with a huge population of students. I am talking about people trained to advocate for a smaller population of students and their families, whose needs cannot be met by academic counseling alone. The people I am talking about are trained as SCHOOL social workers. They do not work for DSS or other local agencies, although they sometimes work with them. They work for families through the schools. One need not read these BBs for long to understand that many families and children with special needs could use their help and support.
While the school administration is focused on the “weaknesses” or “deficiencies” the child and family face, the school social worker is trained to look for ways to build on their strengths, and to go out into the community to find other resources if necessary. School social workers know how to access these resources. To top it off, they even make house calls!
Thanks again for letting everyone know Rep. Roukema is trying to provide for better mental health funding in the schools. Sooner or later, society will pay for students who do not receive an appropriate education. Common sense tells me we are smart to pay now while the costs (economic AND social) are lower. JJ