June 28, 2018, Crystal River, FL, Citrus Cty Chronicle: School district to hire additional mental health professionals, examine Baker Act processes https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/education/school-district-to-hire-additional-mental-health-professionals-examine-baker/article_9a0b895a-7bcf-11e8-b9d7-73ec36e8ed85.html
Schools statewide will receive additional funds earmarked for mental health assistance, and the Citrus County School District has decided how those funds will be spent.
During its June 26 meeting, school board members and district staff heard a presentation from Director of Student Services Kit Humbaugh about the additional staff and services those funds will provide, and mental health assessment procedures in general.
The $434,575 the school district will receive in additional funding for mental health services will pay for two new school psychologists, four more school social workers, and a student services specialist position. It will also fund professional development and implementation expenses associated with those hires and new requirements within the Mental Health Assistance Allocation Plan, according to Humbaugh’s presentation.
After hiring for the new positions, the district will employ 12 school psychologists, 11 school social workers, and 36 school counselors.
“The school district allocated 90 percent of expenditures to provide mental health services or coordination of mental health services with primary care and mental health providers,” a presentation handout read. …
Currently, the district has a plan to follow up with students after they are taken from a school to a Baker Act receiving facility — in Brooksville or Ocala, because Citrus doesn’t have one — for evaluation. That plan, Humbaugh said, will be revised to require additional follow-ups with each child. …
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act, also called Senate Bill (SB) 7026, allows various state and local agencies and programs “that provide services to students experiencing or at risk of an emotional disturbance or a mental illness” — including school districts, law enforcement agencies, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Department of Children and Families — to “share with each other records or information” that would otherwise be confidential if the information is “reasonably necessary to ensure access to appropriate services for the student or to ensure the safety of the student or others.”…
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
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What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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