The K-12 mental health plan failed to pass a tie vote. So what’s next for Wyoming’s youth?

The Legislature’s interim Education Committee has unanimously voted to move forward a legal framework that would have created a K-12 mental health policy for the state. Under Wyoming court rules, a tie means it fails.

The bill was researched and drafted by the Army’s Mental Health and Vulnerable Adult Task Force.

Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander) is the chairman of the committee. He said the purpose of the law is to create a national policy for schools on how to deal with mental health.

The problem was: Are we turning our schools into mental health providers, or are we somehow directing and managing people with mental health issues to help or connect them, to access services? mental health?” said Larsen. “The Task Force came back to this committee and recommended that they strongly encourage us to avoid turning our schools into mental health providers and to know how to equip schools. with the ability to analyze or identify people those who have them. they have mental health problems. ”

As written, districts would have had the option of adopting a program under the US Department of Education called Purpose NOTE (Promoting Health and Academic Strength). It started in 2014 under the Obama administration as part of the federal safe schools initiative.

Project AWARE has already tested the programs 13 federal districts that use federal funds. Those funds will expire at the end of 2026.

The program is a collaborative process with students, parents and families. When services are deemed appropriate for the family and student, the referral process begins.

“That transfer model is based on a three-pronged framework: prevention, recognition and transfer,” said Dustin Brown with the Wyoming Department of Education. “This goes back to our building where we want teachers to be teachers and we want health care providers to be health care providers. So what we’re doing is bridging the gap between education and health care and to provide students with the necessary services [to] Support needs of students with anxiety, depression, PTSD and oppositional defiant disorder. ”

The bill would have set aside $11 million to fund the program for all school districts through June 2026, without the school district adopting it. The money would help support the work of a community project manager in each area that decided to accept the program. Basically it would create a policy for the government and a budget for dealing with mental health for students.

During the committee meeting, discussions revolved around how and where the funding will come from, why Project AWARE is not specifically mentioned in the constitution and whether the language state that parental consent is required is included in the law.

“I really believe that the bill needs to include that clarity because, again, I think we all have that clarity right now,” said Rep. Marth Lawley (R-Worland). “I accept that of the department [of education] but I think it is important when we are talking about transferring students that we can easily change and make it clear that all those things will happen with the involvement of parents and permission. “

Larsen responded to the parents’ request for permission by saying it was part of Project AWARE.

“I believe we need to say that the goal is for the department to work on Project AWARE,” continued Lawley. “I think you understand that you’ve had a lot of discussions, which I’m not particularly opposed to, but I think it should be in the bill where we’re talking about a specific program that we’re funding. “

Ultimately, the committee refused to adopt any resolutions that would explicitly add parental consent or Project AWARE to the bill.

After the meeting, Larsen said he plans to introduce a similar individual bill in the next session.

“Like we did [the Task Force] has worked on this, school districts and parents have reached out and, in my opinion, confirmed that there is concern about the increase in mental health issues that we are seeing in schools,” he said.

He said the whole point of the Task Force was to see the government’s role in the mental health problems of young people. This bill was the end of that.

“The K-12 system needs to be able to identify, stabilize and communicate,” Larsen said.

The legislative session begins in mid-January.