SALT LAKE CITY — A Sandy lawmaker plans to introduce legislation that calls on Utah public schools, with parental consent, to conduct age-appropriate mental health screenings.
Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, said schools have offered vision and hearing screenings for decades, notifying parents of problems and referring them to resources.
Because suicide is a leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24, and symptoms of some mental illnesses manifest during youth, it makes sense to implement screenings that can improve youths’ mental health and potentially save lives, Eliason said.
“The majority of mental health disorders manifest themselves during the teenage years. When caught early, these conditions can be fairly easily treated, addressed, especially if they’re caught early on,” Eliason said.
“It seems odd that for the condition that is the largest driver behind the leading cause of death for school-aged children that we have no screening,” he said.
The bill has not yet been released to the public but the proposal would require the Utah State Board of Education and state Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to select a screening tool to be administered annually, he said.
Written parental permission would be required before students could be screened and they would be identified only by a number to protect their privacy. The division would analyze data from the screenings and recommend interventions with students based on the screening tool.
Then, the school would work with a mental health professional who would provide interventions in school settings. Eliason said he is also contemplating a provision that would allow the Utah State Board of Education to use surplus funds from mental health screenings to pay for recommended treatment that cannot be provided by a mental health professional in school.
Eliason said at least two school districts — South Sanpete and Carbon — have implemented some form of mental health screenings on their own.
In Carbon School District’s case, the district hired licensed clinical social workers who work with students from elementary through high school, although there is not a social worker in every school, said Superintendent Lance Hatch.
The district does not perform universal screenings but students can be referred, with parental consent, to social workers for screening to address uncharacteristic behaviors or other issues that indicate a student could benefit from an intervention.
Much of the care occurs at school by licensed clinical social workers, some of whom formerly worked for the local mental health authority.
Initially, many parents declined screenings or treatment for their children, Hatch said.
“The more people realize what are our mental health professionals do and who they are, it gets better,” Hatch said.
“They went from getting a lot of noes to ‘right now.’ They are so busy that they’re wondering how they’re going to keep up.”
Previously, schools would raise concerns with parents and refer them to community resources to seek further evaluation and help.
“Half of the time they wouldn’t go. Those who did, didn’t keep going. There’s there’s a charge, there’s a cost to it, so that is prohibitive for some families. Being able to offer some services in the schools has been a game changer for us this year,” Hatch said.
Some students need therapy twice a week. Others benefit from a brief, daily check-in with a licensed clinical social worker, he said.
The big difference is, students are receiving help they need to be successful in life and at school.
Some students are dealing with intense trauma and crippling anxiety that is so pervasive that “sometimes I think, ‘How in the world are they even functioning?’” Hatch said.
“This is the No. 1 issue we face because we cannot educate them when the students are dealing with major trauma or other issues. We need to help them with that first so that we can educate them,” he said.
The school district funded the positions through a grant from the Utah State Board of Education, as well as funding participating schools received under the Teacher and Student Success Act lawmakers passed in 2019 and targeted some $100 million to school-level education initiatives.
As a parent of students who attend public school, Hatch said he would be willing to consent to the universal screenings Eliason is proposing.
“I would sure like to know proactively if there was something we could take care of before it manifests in other ways,” he said.
In some respects, universal screening might make conversations with parents more comfortable and they may be more willing to consent to interventions if an issue was revealed during a screening that all students undergo, Hatch said.
Eliason said he recognizes not all schools have mental health professionals on staff, but they are in a position to refer families to licensed therapists and other community resources that can help their child.
“We’re not we’re not asking the schools to become clinics. We’re we asking them to basically do the same thing they do for vision or hearing,” he said.
If a child fails a vision screening, the school does not fit them with prescription glasses.
“They let the parents know there’s an issue and tell them ‘Get your kid into the optometrist.’”