 - The Wyoming House Education Committee voted against a legislative proposal this month that would have funded additional K-12 mental health programming for Wyoming schools.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming House Education Committee voted against a legislative proposal this month that would have funded additional K-12 mental health programming for Wyoming schools.
Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, was the main sponsor of House Bill 180, which built on legislation that the state’s Mental Health and Vulnerable Adult Task Force unsuccessfully proposed last year.
Larsen said he has modified the task force proposal since then to address some of the concerns lawmakers cited when they voted against the original bill.
For example, Larsen said some legislators were concerned that there was no mention of parental consent in the task force bill, so he made sure HB 180 included reference to the state statute that “requires school districts to inform parents before any type of referral or anything takes place.”
Wyoming Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, said that change made HB 180 more palatable for her.
“This bill … really is designed around what we were already doing in parental rights,” she said. “The parents are involved in every (step). They have an option to say … we’re not interested in doing anything. It stops there.”
With the parental notification requirement now included in HB 180, she added, “we need to act” to address the mental and behavioral health needs of Wyoming children.
“To do nothing is not an option,” Lawley said. “To do nothing ignores (a) lot of very troubling statistics in Wyoming. … Our parental rights statutes are strong in this area, and we need to give districts the opportunity to try some of these programs and see if it makes a difference.”
Wyoming Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, disagreed with Lawley’s assertion that a “no” vote on HB 180 is the equivalent of “deciding to do nothing,” pointing out that $5 million of the funding that would have supported HB 180 will still be distributed to local school districts so they can “use it as they wish.”
That means the state won’t know how local school districts are using the money, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder explained earlier in the meeting – and as a result, the state won’t be able to measure whether the funding is having a positive impact on student mental health.
The House Education Committee voted 3-6 to defeat HB 180 this month, with local Wyoming Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, voting “no.”