With the passage of Assembly Bill 114 and the many changes
that have taken place for the provision and delivery of mental health services
it is now the responsibility of educational systems to manage the many complex
issues that can impair a student's ability to learn and therefore received a
proper education in the least restrictive setting.
Now school districts are placed with the onerous tasks of
providing mental health services to children and adolescents that have complex
psychiatric disturbances that can impair their ability to have the benefit of a
free and appropriate public education.
Although many legal experts have weighed in on this issue,
the abundance of opinion suggests that school districts need to continue with
services equivalent to those children and adolescents were receiving through
the county mental health care delivery system. One of the many services that
were provided included diagnostic evaluation, psychiatric consultation, and at
times, the appropriate prescription and monitoring of psychotropic medications.
With the return to public campuses many students previously
managed in intense milieus found in a non-public school setting, psychiatric
support is fundamental and essential to these children’s successful transition
to a less restrictive setting.
Many school districts have chosen to continue with
psychiatric consultation and mental health therapy. Some school districts that
currently include this service are San Juan unified school district, Elk Grove,
and lodi. School districts that currently offer education related mental health
services include Bonita Unified, culver City Unified, Glenn County, Kern County, Los ‘Angeles
County of Education, and the list goes on.
Including this service with therapies that focus on
education related mental health issues allows for comprehensive patient care,
depth of skill set, and additional security medico-legally and will provide the
necessary support to ensure the children in the school districts meet the
expectations of their IEP and will allow them to receive a free and appropriate
public education.
Having such a service, psychiatric consultation, proves highly
cost-effective, risk reducing, diminishes lost attendance days, and reduces the
number of students that require placement in a higher level of care.
It is also the right thing to do for the children that we
serve that have special needs.
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