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FlaglerLive | March 9, 2018

School funding next academic year will be shaped by the Florida Legislature's reaction to the mass shooting of students and staff at a Broward County high school.

A new $88.7 billion state budget, which was released Thursday and is expected to be approved Sunday, includes a $21.1 billion spending plan for the 67 school districts. It would boost per-student funding by $101.50 during 2018-2019 to $7,408 and represents a $485 million increase in state funding and local property taxes.

A significant increase in school spending is tied to the Feb. 14 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The annual school funding formula would include a new category for mental-health funding with $69 million. It would increase the "safe schools" program, which helps pay for school resource officers, to $162 million, a $97.5 million increase.

Outside the funding formula, the school districts also could apply for grants to improve the security of their campuses in a $98.9 million program.

But lawmakers pared Gov. Rick Scott's request for an $18 million increase in funding for classroom supplies for teachers. Lawmakers backed an $8.8 million increase, which should boost the annual payments by about $50 to $300.

Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who helped develop a $400 million school-safety initiative, said the response to the Parkland tragedy became the "most important" issue facing the Legislature.

"It put everything else we were working on, on a back burner," he said. "I feel like we've done our best."

He said one of the challenges was that the incident occurred midway during the annual legislative session, forcing lawmakers to quickly develop a response without the normal lead time and preparation.

"It certainly has impacted the budget. A lot of projects have fallen out. And money had to be reprioritized. It's not often that you go into session and have to make a $400 million adjustment midstream," Galvano said.

In other areas of the budget, charter schools would receive more than $145 million for renovation and maintenance work in the budget. Public schools would receive $50 million.

Jackson County would receive more than $19 million in second-year funding for a three-year project to build a new kindergarten-through-eighth grade school. Taylor County would receive $6.2 million for a primary school project and Liberty County would receive $6 million for a high school project.

Legislative leaders announced Thursday afternoon the new budget been printed and would be available Sunday for a vote after a 72-hour "cooling off" period. The spending plan then will go to Scott, who has line-item veto power.

The final negotiations on the budget also resulted in more funding for several higher-education initiatives.

Lawmakers agreed to increase funding for schools that qualify as "pre-eminent" universities by $20 million, which should benefit the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of South Florida, if USF obtains that status in the coming year.

The budget would increase performance funding for the universities to $265 million in the next academic year, a $20 million increase.

The program that allows universities to recruit "world class" professors and researchers was increased by $20 million, and a program that rewards high-performing medical, law and other professional schools was increased by $10 million.

Florida Gulf Coast University, which did not qualify for state performance funding this year, would receive $13.7 million in additional money in the new budget.

The University of North Florida would receive more than $4 million, and Florida International University would receive $4.7 million in additional funding.

The state college system would\receive $6.75 million as a partial restoration of a $30 million cut in the current year's budget.

St. Johns River State College would receive $3 million in additional funding. Daytona State College would receive $1 million for a writing program that provides free tutoring services for students.
-Lloyd Dunkleberger, News Service of Florida

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Florida Increases Per-Student Funding By $101, Much Of It For Security and Mental Health | FlaglerLive

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FlaglerLive | March 9, 2018 School funding next academic year will be shaped by the Florida Legislature's reaction to the mass shooting of students and staff at a Broward County high school. A new $88.7 billion state budget, which was released Thursday and is expected to be approved Sunday, includes a $21.1 billion spending plan for the 67 school districts.

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According to the American School Counselor Association, the current role of school counselor is to “help all students in the areas of academic achievement, career and social/emotional development, ensuring today's students become the productive, well-adjusted adults of tomorrow.”

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So what if, instead, we were to speak up and call for better understanding and treatment of mental health disorders within our educational system?

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"Our educational system punishes, suspends and expels children with mental disorders at double or more the rate of their peers."

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As a clinical child psychologist and associate professor of social work, I'm concerned by the national discourse around mental health, violence and schools, as pundits offer misguided and simplistic solutions to the very complex issue of student mental health:

Arm the teachers. Install metal detectors. Practice lockdown procedures.

We can all agree that safety in schools is paramount, but by focusing on the intersection of violence and mental health, we are missing the point.

Our society is failing to effectively address the tremendous need for mental health supports for our children, my son included.
Related: Willing, able and forgotten
When I was growing up, springtime at school was reinvigorating: a time of warmer weather, spring break and even renewed enthusiasm for classes. Now that I'm a mother, each new season, or day for that matter, brings worry: worry that my teenage son won't make it out of bed and out the door in the morning; worry that if he does, he will be misunderstood in the classroom, the cafeteria or, worse, the band hall.

The band hall has long been his refuge, where he retreats to get lost in the comfort of music. But last semester, after a series of absences and missed assignments, he was temporarily suspended from playing in the high school band. His suspension was no surprise; it is the latest in a string of punishments by adults who do not understand his depression. And it is just one small example of how our society punishes and criminalizes, rather than prevents and treats, mental health problems.

"Our educational system punishes, suspends and expels children with mental disorders at double or more the rate of their peers. The disparity is largest for black and brown teenage boys ... "

One in five children has a debilitating mental illness, and exclusionary and punitive practices are the norm for dealing with their symptoms. Few educators would consider reprimanding a child to "just breathe" during an asthma attack, or sending a child to detention because he or she had a seizure and disrupted the class.

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Related: A new movement to treat troubled children as 'sad, not bad'
But according to the U.S. Department of Education, our educational system punishes, suspends and expels children with mental disorders at double or more the rate of their peers. The disparity is largest for black and brown teenage boys, who are shepherded out of school into the juvenile justice system as part of the well-documented school-to-prison pipeline. I often wonder whether my son would be among them if we lived in a different zip code or if his skin were the darker shade of some of his cousins'.

A few years ago, my son pushed into his brother as they passed in the school hallway, causing my younger son to stumble backwards. The incident was reported to the administration because of my older son's documented "emotional disturbance." Under the guise of safety, the school filed a police report alleging peer-to-peer assault and initiated a child welfare investigation for neglect and physical and emotional abuse. In disciplinary meetings, administrators wondered out loud whether a more restrictive environment would better meet his needs. With a strict warning, they simply suspended him. At age 12, my son became one of approximately three million public school students suspended from school each year.

Dozens of times since then, in instances big and small, I have seen how we misunderstand, exclude and punish students with mental health problems. I think of the 5-year-old who qualified for gifted education in his local magnet school but was denied admission because of his speech difficulties; of the high school student with autism spectrum disorder who was discouraged from taking an AP class he qualified for because his behavior might become challenging; of the college student who was failing all of her classes because she was homebound with debilitating panic attacks.

And I think of the countless parents who have told me, eyes cast down, about their child's mental health struggles. They know that empathy in our society is reserved for other illnesses. Their hushed tones are meant to protect their children and their family from stigma.
Related: STUDENT VOICE: Don't blame autism for the Florida school shooting
Rhetoric following the Parkland school shooting has deepened stigmatization. By labeling a teen with depression, ADHD and autism-spectrum disorder "sicko" and calling for troubled youth to be kept out of communities through institutionalization practices that have proven both ineffective and inhumane, President Donald Trump reinforced archaic notions of mental illness as a character flaw to be punished. And our collective silence only breeds misunderstandings of our children's symptoms and needs.

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So what if, instead, we were to speak up and call for better understanding and treatment of mental health disorders within our educational system? What if, in response, the educational system were to share the responsibility of meeting the mental health needs of our children?
Related: What happens when a regular high school decides no student is a lost cause?
Educators report that they have limited time and training to deal with mental health issues. Their focus, rightly, is to ensure that students acquire the requisite knowledge and skills in core academic subjects, an enormous and complicated undertaking in itself.

But to teach, educators must be able to engage their students, including the 20 percent who are too hyperactive, impulsive, depressed, panicked or distracted to listen. According to research, these children will be more likely to get poor grades, skip classes and drop out of school, especially when they have been suspended or expelled for misbehavior. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that just over half a million students drop out of high school each year, leading to a cascade of costly and negative consequences, including lower rates of employment, lower earnings when employed, and higher rates of both welfare and incarceration.
This story was produced by Dr. Esther Calzada is a clinical child psychologist, an associate professor of social work at The University of Texas at Austin and a fellow in the OpEd Project. Her program of research, focused on family and intergenerational processes and interventions, aims to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in mental health problems and academic achievement. The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.
We can invest in mental health services in schools instead. Well-developed, empirically validated, school-based treatments are available for childhood mental health disorders. They reflect decades of research showing that a supportive, inclusive and skills-building approach to dealing with mental health problems is most effective. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs has long invested in the development, testing and implementation of programs to address mental health needs, including the widely recognized Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS). Researchers have estimated the cost of PBIS to be as high as $62 per student, compared with a cost of $163,340 per dropout. What will we choose to pay for?

This semester, my son has been allowed to play with the band again, but I struggle to find a sense of hope with this fresh start. I can't help but wonder when the next suspension will come. But in the meantime, I'm ready to drop my hushed tone. We can demand that others stop punishing our children for their illnesses. We can push for access to programs designed to support our children. We can stop the criminalization of mental health problems in schools.

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OPINION: We must stop the criminalization of mental illness in schools

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As a clinical child psychologist and associate professor of social work, I'm concerned by the national discourse around mental health, violence and schools, as pundits offer misguided and simplistic solutions to the very complex issue of student mental health: Arm the teachers. Install metal detectors. Practice lockdown procedures.

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Schools should hire additional counselors in order to address the mental health crisis among youth.

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"Researchers have found that school counselors make a difference in students' lives and can impact a range of outcomes, including supporting the academic, career, and personal/social development of students."

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How School Counselors Make a World of Difference: EBSCOhost

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Mental health awareness is an important issue for all educators, who are often the first line of defense for their students. Education professionals have recognized the impact that a student's mental health has on learning and achievement, and they realize that there's a great deal that can be done to help students with mental health issues. As a high school teacher with more than 23 years of experience, I welcome the fact that mental health awareness is finally becoming an important part of a school's function and curriculum.

Seeing the Signs in My Student

A few years ago, a student in my senior class changed drastically in a short period of time. I noticed that Melina no longer did her homework, and she didn't even try on her essays. Previously meticulous in her appearance, Melina would come to school disheveled, wearing the same clothes. When I tried to speak to her, she was uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn. Because I had some training in mental health awareness, I knew Melina was in some sort of trouble.

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Luckily, my school had social workers on staff who could speak to Melina and assess her issues. They discovered that Melina was depressed and suicidal, and she needed an immediate psychiatric intervention. Melina was hospitalized for a period of time, but she was able to return to my classroom a few months later. With the help of medication and therapy, she managed to graduate with her class.

Understanding the Impact

The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that one in five people live with some sort of mental disorder or disease. Despite the fact that the average age of early signs of mental illness is 14, most individuals don't seek help until adulthood. Underlining the seriousness is the fact that 60 percent of high school students with mental illness don't graduate.

New York mental health experts recognized that earlier intervention could result in more positive outcomes for these students. Beginning in July 2018, New York will be the first state in the nation to require mental health education for all students. The overall mission of New York's School Mental Health (SMH) program is to promote healthy social, emotional, and behavioral development of students, and "break down barriers to learning so the general well-being of students, families, and school staff can be enhanced in collaboration with other comprehensive student support and services."

The SMH program supports the emotional health and academic growth of all students with the following:

Integrating comprehensive services and support throughout every grade level

Assessing mental health needs through universal, selective, and targeted interventions

Providing access to behavioral and mental health services and programs

Leveraging higher-level personnel, such as those working with the Department of Education, for necessary support and services

Building collaborative relationships between the school and students' families and communities

Spreading Awareness Across the Nation

Until mental health education is a mandatory aspect of all schools, teachers and administrators can work to promote awareness with their students. Key elements to shine a light on include the concept of self-care and responsibility for one's own mental health and wellness, with an emphasis on the fact that mental health is an integral part of health, and the concept of recovery from mental illness.

Teachers and students should be provided with ways to recognize signs of developing mental health problems, and there should be opportunities around the awareness and management of mental health crises, including the risk of suicide or self-harm. Further, instruction should address the relationship between mental health, substance abuse, and other negative coping behaviors, as well as the negative impact of stigma and cultural attitudes toward mental illness.

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