State lawmakers debuted the latest package of bills intended to expand mental health care services for Delaware students on Monday.
Delaware has expanded the number of mental health care positions in public schools faster than almost any other state – a coordinated response by lawmakers to a surge in emergency room visits, outpatient behavioral health treatment and suicides among children and teenagers in the past three years.
In 2021 and 2022, lawmakers funded an increase in the ratio of counselors and social workers to students in elementary and middle schools. This year’s package addresses high schools. Senate Education Committee Chair Laura Sturgeon — who retired after more than two decades as a public school teacher in 2020 — says while the multi-year approach to increasing mental health spending is reasonable, she recognizes had held out hope for three years that resources would be extended to high school students.
“I remember thinking to myself that some day, we need to get to the point at which we’re providing more mental health support in the high schools, because believe me - they need it too," she said.
The package also includes a proposal to provide Medicaid enhancements to incentivize health car providers to set aside or create beds for pediatric behavioral health treatment — a chance to address the stark shortage of inpatient treatment options for young people experiencing behavioral health crises.
Another bill within the package would allow students three excused absences a year for mental or behavioral health reasons. Though the additional excused absences would theoretically reduce the risk that a student's family would face fines for truancy, some Delaware school districts — including Colonial School District, for instance — say they already use school counselors as service navigators for students with frequent unexcused absences in lieu of pursuing truancy penalties.
Backers say the price tag for expanding mental health care staffing in schools could be a barrier to the bills’ passage, but bipartisan support for previous measures was strong.
