The School Board of Lee County gave a first nod to a policy to establish actions to be taken when a student is experiencing a mental health issue.

The consensus on Policy, 4.222, Mental Health & Well-Being, came after Board Chair Debbie Jordan expressed a great deal of concern of the process taken for those who are at imminent risk.

“This is near and dear to my heart. I took the time and read through this multiple times,” she said. “If the process is followed as written it works. We have to make sure the system is not broken and whatever it is we need to do to fix it, we need to fix it.”

Communication with parents was a major concern for Jordan, for both contacting them, and for them knowing the process of when a student returns to school after being involuntary transported to a designated receiving facility.

Jordan said there is a problem when parents do not know prior to intervention and that a conversation needs to happen before the student returns to school.

The principal, or designee must make a “reasonable attempt” to notify the parent, guardian, or caretaker that the student is to be taken to a designated receiving facility, was among the issues that gave Jordan pause.

“If a number does not work, that is not a reasonable attempt,” Jordan said. “It irks me to no end that they give you this number and nobody is going to answer that number.”

In addition, she said district officials have to make sure that if they are giving someone a number to call back, that number is a number that someone is going to answer on the other end, not a school number.

School Counseling and Mental Health Director Lori Brooks said staff could add additional information to the process document, as it is highly prescriptive. She said they could provide a different cell phone families can call if the switch board is closed.

Board Attorney Kathy Dupuy-Bruno said it has to be specified and documented how they contacted the parent, or guardian, as well as the outcome of each attempt.

The policy breaks down the steps the district takes in regard to prevention, intervention and postvention in regards to the physical, behavioral and emotional well-being of a student.

When the district’s process is followed as written, the parent, or guardian is contacted very early on, Brooks said, as they need to be part of the conversation.

Brooks said in the intervention phase, as a student may present suicidal ideation at school, they call the parent, guardian, or emergency contact, early on in the process because they want them to be involved.

“They need to be part of that conversation. With the postvention, which is the support plan to support the child at school, the parent is invited into that process, along with the student to help us understand what may help the student,” Brooks said. “It could be that they need to be able to see their counselor when they feel like they just need to have a minute, or they need a time out. We want to make sure we have plans in place that increases their access, kind of like on demand, during the school day.”

Board member Gwyn Gittens asked what happens when the district is unable to get parental involvement, or the parent(s) feel as if nothing is wrong with their child.

“How do you deal with that moving forward without that parental piece?” she asked.

Brooks said that highlights the power of the School Mental Health Team with school counselors, social workers, school phycologist and our licensed mental health professional because typically the person who knows the student the best is going to be meeting with the student, parent, or guardian to discuss the items.

“If we struggle with parental involvement typically that is multiple outreaches. We will still do a support plan the best we can for school hours to have a student identify for us how to help them stay safe and also support their emotional well-being,” Brooks said. “We progressively move through members of the team, however, if we are unable to obtain solid contact with the parent and a commitment even for the school support and that will escalate up to our licensed mental health professionals. Frequently they can talk to the parent at a licensed level and really help them with another layer of information. We don’t always get to yes, but eventually, in a lot of cases we do.”

Brooks said they do not provide mental health services without consent from a parent. She said it is more of a safety piece where the support plan is required when a student returns to school after having a concern for suicidal ideation because they have to make sure they are safe at school.

“During school hours we can assist them if they feel like they need access,” she said. “Whatever it is they need, we want to make sure we are providing that during school.”

Gittens said she still had concerns regarding parental rights information because the district could get into some “sticky situations from time to time.”

When any employee “has reason to believe that a student is at imminent risk to themselves, or others” the intervention component kicks in and it is reported to the principal, or designee. This includes a student expressing a threat including verbal, written, or conveyed through social media, self-harm evidence and if a student self refers.

In an attempt to de-escalate a student in crisis, school administrators will utilize the mental health professionals on campus.

If a de-escalation intervention is unsuccessful and the “student is believed to be experiencing a mental health crisis,” school administrators then will seek assistance with the Mobile Crisis Response Team. If these efforts fail, the Mobile Crisis Response Team licensed member, or a school resource officer, in consultation with a supervisor, further evaluates to see if the students meets statutory criteria of the state Baker Act to be transported for an involuntary examination.

The students who are transported for an involuntary examination are referred to the School Mental Health Team for review once released.

Brooks said postvention takes place either after a parent has come to the school and is provided with resources and support, or has experienced involuntary hospitalization at, or outside of the school. She said information is provided to the parent, as well as a support plan for the hours the student is in school.

“After a student has experienced suicide ideation we want to ensure they are not in that situation,” Brooks said.

Jordan also touched upon the Mobile Crisis team that is supposed to come out if the need arises, but there is a time issue.

“If it is at the end of day of school, guess what, we are not calling them. We are going to make a decision on what is going to happen to this child. We are just going to call the SRO and they’re going to call their superior who is not there. Of course they do not want the responsibility, so they are going to say, do what you have to do,” Jordan said. “We have failed our student.”

Jordan said nothing in the policy states what is the end of the day, as some children stay after school for care. She further asked if they have adequate time to get the team.

“As a district with us having all of these children, we need to create our own mobile unit, so we always have the ability to make sure these kids are being taken care of,” Jordan said. “If we can create our own team here, that could put us in a situation that not one person is ever going to make a decision. We have to make sure we are really doing everything in our power.”

Brooks said they have been reviewing an opportunity to create their own district mobile crisis team, to be secondary to the Circuit 20 team, which she said they have support from all stakeholders to add that additional team.

“Because we have been convicted of the need for this team and it has been worrisome. Our School Resource Officers, it is not to take anything away from them, but being a mental health professional doing a one to two hour deeper clinical assessment before determining if someone needs to be involuntary hospitalized is much different than being a law enforcement officer having to walk into that situation,” Brooks said.

The district is looking at the mental health allocation, which as been slated to increase.

“What we would like to look at, of course pending the district process for approval, is adding our own licensed health mental professional to be that secondary team. We would run through two layers of clinical opportunity, Mobile Crisis through Circuit 20 and CPE, our own mobile crisis team before we would then have to ask a school resource officer,” Brooks said.

Superintendent Dr. Ken Savage said it would provide an additional layer of the best expertise, which adds a tremendous value. With that said, he said a partnership with families is significant, as it is important to maintain accurate information, especially contact information.

“I know there could be a liability to own a Mobile Crisis Team, but it could respond to different locations and not transport a child,” Board member Mary Fischer said, adding that she knows there is an inordinate number of involuntary hospitalizations for children. We would “have the ability to intervene more and do a little bit of a better job. We may have less of those.”

Fischer asked how does the district ensure what happens to a child who is delivered to the door of receiving facility is in accordance with their own policy.

Brooks said the Mobile Crisis Team prepares the student and parent, or guardian, for what is going to happen when transport takes place.

“The receiving facilities, we could attempt to strengthen MOU (memorandum of understanding) on that end,” she said. “We can engage in the conversation with more of an ask for consideration of how CSU intake and process individuals as a whole.”

Fischer said the Baker Act, which allows for the involuntary commitment if a person is deemed a danger to themselves or others, is designed for adults, but when children are involved they are further traumatized with what happens.

“We are committed to doing this in a trauma sensitive way and upmost respect. We are grateful for 590 to be in effect, (it provides) stronger guardrails to continue to improve in this area,” Brooks said.