SB 1113: Pupil health: mental health.

Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and special education local plan areas (SELPAs) to comply with state laws that conform to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in order that the state may qualify for federal funds available for the education of individuals with exceptional needs. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and SELPAs to identify, locate, and assess individuals with exceptional needs and to provide those pupils with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, and with special education and related services, including mental health services, as reflected in an individualized education program.

Existing law contains provisions governing the operation and financing of community mental health services for the mentally disordered in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs.

This bill would specifically authorize a county, or a qualified provider operating as part of the county mental health plan network, and a local educational agency to enter into a partnership that includes, among other things, an agreement between the county mental health plan, or the qualified provider, and the local educational agency that establishes a Medi-Cal mental health provider that is county operated or county contracted for the provision of mental health services to pupils of the local educational agency and in which there are provisions for the delivery of campus-based mental health services through qualified providers or qualified professionals to provide on-campus support to identify pupils with a specified education plan and pupils not in special education who a teacher believes may require those services and, with parental consent, to provide mental health services to those pupils. The bill would create the County and Local Educational Agency Partnership Fund in the State Treasury, which would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Education for the purpose of funding these partnerships, as specified, and would require the State Department of Education to fund these partnerships through a competitive grant program.

The bill would require funds made available in the annual Budget Act for the purpose of providing educationally related mental health services required by an individualized education program to be used only for that purpose and would prohibit those funds from being deposited into the County and Local Educational Agency Partnership Fund.