The Michigan Legislature increased funding for student mental health and safety in the new state budget, but to receive a share of the $321 million fund, local school districts must sign away some legal protections.
Getting the funding requires that, if a mass casualty event like a school shooting happens on campus, districts will share information with state investigators, even if it includes records that are sensitive or subject to attorney-client privilege.
Dozens of districts around the state have sued, asking a judge with the Michigan Court of Claims for an injunction to stop the state from enforcing that rule.
The deadline to opt into a portion of the funds, originally set for November 30, has been pushed back to December 4, and the judge set a hearing on the injunction for December 1.
The new privilege waiver requirement comes four years after the Oxford School shooting.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District is one that signed the waiver. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wrote in a statement that as an underfunded district, DPS couldn’t “afford to walk away from $7.2M dollars” that fund contracted nurses and mental health for students, and full time security employees at schools.
“We certainly had and have continuing concerns with stipulations that came with receiving the funding. … Losing that funding would have had a direct negative impact on our students,” Vitti wrote.
Other school districts have declined the state funding.
Seven school groups sent a letter to the Michigan Legislature, arguing that the law’s language raised several legal and operational challenges, and it should be rewritten to limit its scope.
“We recommend narrowly tailoring the statute to limit investigations to catastrophic school safety incidents defined by scale and severity; require districts to cooperate fully while preserving legal privileges; and maintain compliance with existing privacy and transparency laws, including FERPA, FOIA and OMA,” the letter reads.
Senator Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, told Bridge Michigan that the language used in the law is because of the governor and “this was something the governor’s office was unwilling to change.”
Kenneth Cole, the spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Education, wrote in a statement that the department does not comment on pending litigation.