No Mandate in 49 States—Yet Nearly One-Third of U.S. Schools Force Mental Health Checks on Kids
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
As the Summer winds down administrators and teachers prepare for the onslaught of returning students to America’s public schools. Although parents used to only worry about school supplies and new clothes as preparation for the new school year, now, unfortunately, unwanted school mental health intervention needs to be added to that list.
The behavioral health industry is doing everything it can to insert itself into your child’s life and the mental health experts make no bones about it when it reports that “schools are the natural place to do it,” inferring that receiving mental health care in school is just like vision and hearing screening.
The push to give mental health screenings and treatment in schools is in response to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy describing the mental health of America’s children as “the defining public health crisis of our time.” This declaration came after the 2021 Surgeon General’s pronouncement that there was a “youth mental health emergency.” And the Academy of Pediatrics and other health organizations declared a “national emergency” in child and adolescent mental health. Wow. Sounds ominous. But is it?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of children with mental health issues is at historic highs where four in ten high school students reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness and two in ten considered suicide. And, in fact, suicide is the second leading cause of death among children ages 10-24. The fact is, the data reveal that between 2013 and 2023, mental health among America’s youth got worse. But the mental health drug “treatments” among America’s youth also increased.
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into state and federal mental health programs, America’s children are reportedly suffering from a mental health crisis. And, in light of the failure of the behavioral health community to stem the ever-increasing number of mentally ill children, that same industry continues to push for direct access to America’s children through the public education system.
Well, as it stands now, one-third of the nation’s K-12 public schools not only provide mental health screening for students but many offer in-person treatment or referral for mental health care. According to a study conducted by the Rand Corporation, more than one thousand school principals reported that more than 30 percent of them required school mental health screening and 70 percent reported that the school offered in-person treatment.
This data is of great interest because as of the date of this article, there is no federal law requiring mental health in-school screening. While Medicaid requires mental health screening for Medicaid-eligible children, there is no universal mandatory screening for students in public schools.
According to published data, only the state of New Jersey has passed legislation that requires public schools to provide annual depression screenings for all students grades 7-12. Many states are considering mandatory mental health screenings in school but have yet to pass the required legislation.
Naturally, if only one state has passed legislation that mandates mental health screening, where did one-third of the nation’s K-12 schools get authorization to provide the reported mental health screenings? Have parents been notified that their children, many in kindergarten as young as five or six, are being subjected to mental health screenings? And, if so, are parents also told which screenings are being utilized, whether the results of those screenings are being shared and with whom?
The data collected from the screening is extremely sensitive, especially considering any mental health referrals that may be made as a result of the screening outcomes. Remember one of the top psychiatrists in the world, Dr. Allen Francis, recently admitted that child diagnosing should be done “with a pencil.” Of course, the psychiatrist is inferring that children often grow out of a diagnosis and should not be labeled for life. Sound thinking.
And while it is unclear whether parents are notified of the mental health screenings that are taking place in schools, it also is unclear whether parents are given all the necessary information to make informed decisions…that informed consent thing.
For example, despite schools providing numerous informational pamphlets about how and where to get mental health care, no pamphlets are provided containing information about mental health diagnosing, explaining that mental disorders are not based in science and that there is no abnormality in the brain that is any psychiatric diagnosis. Furthermore, school mental health professionals do not provide parents with informational pamphlets that explain that neither the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the pharmaceutical companies have any idea how psychiatric drugs “work” as “treatment” for any alleged mental disorder diagnosis.
Considering that the number of children being diagnosed with a mental disorder and drugged as a form of “treatment” continues to increase every year, perhaps parents may want to opt their children out of the mental health screening.
After all, the data show that despite yearly increases in mental health services, no one appears to be getting better and, in fact, America’s children are in a mental health “crisis.” Maybe it’s time to learn more about the validity of the mental health services that the behavioral health industry is offering and so badly wants to be incorporated into the nation’s schools. Pay attention. It’s a real education.
AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
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The post ABLECHILD: No Mandate in 49 States—Yet Nearly One-Third of U.S. Schools Force Mental Health Checks on Kids first appeared on Joe Hoft.
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