SAN ANTONIO – KSAT is on a quest to learn more about how kids can get mental health care locally.
City mental health leaders said one of the quickest ways to get kids into licensed professional counselors is actually through public schools.
At many districts, when a student has a higher-level mental health issue, their school counselor can make a referral to a licensed professional counselor.
Eleven local districts contract with the nonprofit Communities in Schools, which sends licensed counselors into that child’s school for sessions.
“We wanted to take away some of those barriers whether it’s transportation, cost or even just access,” said Jessica Weaver, president and CEO of Communities in Schools San Antonio.
While she said the multi-year contracts with local districts has been a huge success, she said a new state law is making it harder to push those crucial referrals.
Senate Bill 12 mandates parents “opt in” prior to any health care students receive at school, including mental health.
“I do think SB 12 has created some confusion because it’s always been a practice to get parental consent or parent involvement in conversations about mental health. We always ask a parent before offering mental healthcare,” said Dr. Kimberly Ridgley, the assistant superintendent for Northside Independent School District’s Whole Child Development Program focused on mental health.
Ridgley said messages went out to parents, but she understands it can be easy to miss.
“We send an email out that says, ‘We need you to consent to health and mental health services’ and it’s one of five or six other emails,” Ridgley said. “So instead, you just don’t answer it or delete it and say, ‘I’m not really sure what that is.’”
Ridgley said thousands of kids throughout the district go to their school counselors with issues.
She said now, if a child comes to a counselor and is not opted in through SB 12, that counselor will have to call parents before offering help and possibly making a referral.
If the parent doesn’t answer, the child can’t receive help that day, unless it’s a crisis. In a crisis, the district will take any necessary emergency actions, which also involve the parent.
Still, it’s a concern for the counselors who say time matters in mental health situations.
KSAT checked with other districts about SB 12. San Antonio Independent School District, for example, said only 71% of students are opted in.
That’s why Weaver wants parents to know that the campus counselor is the only person who can refer to the Communities in Schools therapists.
That fast referral process is known to take the burden off parents who in other situations would be cold-calling therapist offices to find their child help. Many have waitlists, and others are too expensive for some families.
“I think it’s just hard to navigate. There’s a lot of reasons — one is transportation, one is trying to find if it takes insurance … if you don’t have insurance, and in San Antonio we have a lot of families that don’t have insurance, so it’s overwhelming and it’s easy to give up,” Weaver said.
For many, school-based mental health care is the answer. Parents just have to call their child’s school counselor and ask to opt in.
“The school counselors are trained mental health professionals with master’s degrees. They can help access services,” Ridgley said. “If you need a referral, they can tell them, ‘Here’s what your child is saying, here’s what they’re struggling with.’”
Considering the number of patients needing high-level help is increasing, they hope parents will reach out with any questions.
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