Mental health screening proposal would connect students, providers

CEDAR RAPIDS — A $2.5 million proposal for a pilot program that would offer mental health screenings in Iowa schools passed a state Senate subcommittee Monday.

The program was proposed by the state's Area Education Agencies (AEAs), which provide schools with special education, professional development and technology services, among other things. The AEAs would run the program to give students mental health screenings, provide some basic counseling and refer more serious cases to community mental health providers.

'It's very clear that there's a mental health crisis in our state,' said State Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, the bill's author. 'This affects what's going on in schools, and increasingly students, teachers, parents, administrators are identifying that there are young Iowans who have mental health conditions, and we're not identifying those early enough.'

Hogg compared the mental health screenings to school-based vision, speech and hearing screenings already conducted by AEA personnel. The bill likely will be taken up Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, he said.

The pilot program would not reach every school district, Hogg noted, but it would give the AEAs a chance to try different approaches to school-based mental health services and see what works.

Joe Crozier, the chief administrator of the Grant Wood AEA, said if the bill becomes law his agency would hire four or five counselors, with each counselor covering a total school population of 1,000 students per day.

A full statewide program based on that model, Crozier said, would cost $10 million. He added that the population size each counselor could cover might drop, meaning an increased cost.

Because parents and schools don't always have the connections with mental health providers that they need, some children with mental health needs fall through the cracks, Crozier said.

'Children are just kind of getting left out right now,' he said.

Counselors hired by the AEAs, he said, could serve as intermediaries between schools and providers.

Though students in special-education programs have some mental health services now, Crozier said, general-education students don't always receive help.

David Benson, the superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, said teachers frequently speak with him about students with mental health issues.

'We have the entire gamut of mental health issues that exist in society,' Benson said. 'Some of those behaviors inhibit a student's ability to learn.

'We would like to be able to impact on that.'

The legislation covers the 2015-16 school year and calls for a report back to the governor and Legislature on Jan. 1, 2017.