BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1644 (Bonta) - School-based early mental health intervention
and prevention services
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|Version: August 1, 2016 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 9 - 0, ED. |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill establishes, contingent upon an
appropriation, the HEAL Trauma in Schools Support Program. It
requires the California Department of Health Care Services
(DHCS) to establish a four-year program to provide outreach,
training, and technical assistance to support local decisions to
provide funding for early mental health support services. This
bill also makes changes to the former Early Mental Health
Initiative (EMHI).
Fiscal
Impact:
Cost pressure to the DHCS between $312,000 and $439,000 for
three to four limited-term positions to provide training on
providing eligible services and other topics; to provide
technical assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) on
AB 1644 (Bonta) Page 1 of
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implementing existing or new programs that provide eligible
services; to conduct outreach regarding this training and
technical assistance; and to produce required reports.
(General Fund)
Cost pressure to the Department of Public Health potentially
in the low hundreds of thousands and the California Department
of Education for one partial position and $47,000 to consult
with the DHCS. (General Fund)
Amendments to statutes governing the former EMHI program
create a cost pressure to provide funding for the program.
Implementation of the EMHI is contingent upon an appropriation
and a determination that any existing federal financial
participation is not jeopardized, as specified. The program
was last funded at $15 million.
Background: Existing law establishes the School-based Early Mental Health
Intervention and Prevention Services for Children Act and
authorizes the Director of the Department of Mental Health, in
consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to
award matching grants to LEAs to pay the state share of the
costs of providing school-based early mental health intervention
and prevention services to eligible students, subject to the
availability of funding each year. (Welfare & Institutions Code
§ 4370, et seq.)
From 1992 until 2012, EMHI grants funded prevention and early
intervention programs for students experiencing mild-to-moderate
school adjustment difficulty. At its peak, there were 15,823
students receiving EMHI-funded services. The Department of
Mental Health has since been dissolved. Funding specifically
for the EMHI was eliminated and beginning in the 2012-13 fiscal
year, was redirected and disbursed directly to LEAs. It is now
a local decision whether to continue this program without state
matching grant support.
EMHI support services include individual and group intervention
and prevention services; parent engagement; teacher and staff
conferences and training to meet project goals; referral to
outside resources when students require additional services; use
of paraprofessional staff, as specified; and any other service
that will improve the mental health of students.
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Proposed Law:
This bill establishes, contingent upon an appropriation, the
HEAL Trauma in Schools Support Program which requires the DHCS
to establish a four-year program to provide outreach, training,
and technical assistance to support local decisions to provide
funding for early mental health support services. This bill
also makes changes to the former EMHI program.
Specifically this bill requires the DHCS to:
HEAL Trauma in Schools Support Program
Establish a four-year program in consultation with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Public Health
Officer, and the Attorney General to encourage and support
local decisions to provide funding for the eligible support
services, as specified. This program is scheduled to sunset
January 1, 2022.
Provide outreach to LEAs to inform individuals responsible for
local funding decisions of this program.
Provide free regional training on: eligible support services
consistent with the EMHI program; the potential for services
to help fulfill state priorities in the local control funding
formula and local goals described in the local control and
accountability plans; allowable funding sources; and external
resources available to support services including conferences;
and state resources available to support student mental health
and resilience and trauma-informed learning environments.
Provide technical assistance to LEAs that provide or seek to
provide eligible services through designing programs,
providing training on intervention skills, conducting local
evaluations, coordinating with county mental health agencies,
and leveraging funds that are subject to local control and
assisting in budget development.
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During the first 12 months, in collaboration with the
Superintendent, to support schools that previously received
funding under the former EMHI program and have continued to
provide eligible support services.
During the subsequent 36 months, select and work with new
schools that are not providing eligible support services but
demonstrate a willingness and capacity to participate in the
program.
Prioritize schools in communities in which LEAs have
demonstrated high levels of childhood adversity and schools
that prioritize children who have been exposed to childhood
trauma, including foster youth and homeless, and geographic
diversity, program effectiveness, and long-term program
sustainability.
Submit, and post on its website, an interim report to the
Legislature at the end of the second year of the program
regarding its work in supporting schools which includes an
assessment of the demand and impact of funding.
Develop an evaluation plan to assess the impact of the program
and report, to the Legislature, as well as post on its
website, at the end of the four-year period evaluating the
impact of the program and providing recommendations for
further implementation.
Changes to the EMHI
Authorizes beginning with grants for the 2017-18 school year,
and subject to the availability of funding each year, the
Director of Health Care Services to, in consultation with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, award matching grants to
LEAs to pay the state share of the costs of programs that
provide early mental health intervention and prevention
services, as specified.
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Adds to the list of criteria for which applicants receive
priority that the LEA will prioritize for services children
who have been exposed to childhood trauma, including foster
youth and homeless children.
Specifies that eligible services include any other service
that will improve the mental health of eligible students,
particularly evidence-based interventions and promising
practices intended to mitigate the consequences of childhood
adversity and cultivate resilience and protective factors.
Removes the requirement that program administration must
include both state and field staff; that field staff provide
support in the implementation of early mental health services;
and that reviews of each project are to be conducted at least
once during the first year of funding.
Authorizes the DHCS to implement this program by means of
information notices, plan letters, plan or provider bulletins,
or similar instruction, until regulations are adopted.
Only allows the EMHI to be implemented to the extent that the
DHCS determines that any existing federal financial
participation associated with the eligible support services
and early mental health intervention services is not
jeopardized. The DHCS is authorized to claim federal
financial participation for the administrative activities
performed by the DHCS for EMHI to the extent the department
determines it is available and that any necessary federal
approvals are obtained. Further, it states that the EMHI
provisions shall not be construed to alter any existing
funding obligation in law associated with the provision of
eligible support services and early mental health intervention
services by county mental health departments or LEAs,
including responsibility for the nonfederal share of
permissible Medicaid expenditures, if any.
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EMHI and HEAL Trauma in Schools Support Program
Provides that the DHCS administers both programs.
Expands students eligible for the EMHI, and applies the
eligibility to the HEAL Trauma in Schools Support Program, to
include a student who attends a state preschool program and
transitional kindergarten, in addition to students in public
kindergarten and in grades one through three.
Related
Legislation: AB 1133 (Achadjian, 2015), similar to this bill,
established a four-year pilot program to provide outreach, free
regional training, and technical assistance for LEAs in
providing mental health services at school sites. AB 1133 was
held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 104 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 13, Statutes of 2015)
included a one-time appropriation of $10 million Proposition 98
to a county office of education to provide technical assistance
and disseminate statewide resources that encourage and assist
LEAs in aligning systems of learning and behavioral supports,
including mental health services. This funding is also for
grants to LEAs to implement these strategies and to evaluate and
learn from effective approaches.
Staff
Comments: This bill makes several changes to the former EMHI
program. For example, it authorizes, beginning with grants for
the 2017-18 school year and subject to the availability of
funding, the DHCS to award matching grants to LEAs to pay the
state share of the costs of programs that provide early mental
AB 1644 (Bonta) Page 6 of
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health intervention and prevention services. This creates a
cost pressure to provide funds for the 2017-18 school year.
When it was last funded in the 2011-12 fiscal year, the EMHI
received $15 million in state funds. The Assembly version of
the 2016 Budget included $6 million to fund the former EMHI
grant program, but no funding was included in the final budget
act. Therefore, the EMHI program remains unfunded.
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