The State Board of Education deadlocked 4-4 on two federal mental health grants that would have helped with recruiting and retaining school psychologists.
Republicans on the board said they will continue to vote against mental health grants until clearer guidelines are in place. Kirk Penner, who represents part of southeast Nebraska, said he brought up his concerns last year, when a different mental health grant also failed.
“I have asked, anything for mental health, that we get some guardrails, safeguards, make it sustainable, data driven, parental notification and measurable,” Penner said.
The Democrats on the officially non-partisan board pushed back, saying there are already guidelines for mental health professionals and asking for specifics about what guardrails the Republican members are looking for.
Maggie Douglas, who represents another part of southeast Nebraska, brought up her experience as a mental health counselor going into schools.
“I have to get the principal’s permission. The school district has to allow it,” Douglas said. “It’s the building, it’s the district, it’s the parent, it’s also the state.”
Both Penner and Elizabeth Tegtmeier, who represents part of western Nebraska, said they shared details for what guardrails they were looking for during last year’s conversations. Some requests Penner made during the March 2025 meeting included defining mental health and what screening is, addressing surveys and making sure it’s sustainable.
James McGown, an administrator with Educational Service Unit 16 in Ogallala, said during public comment that the school-based mental health grant would help with addressing the shortage of school psychologists.
“This grant allows us to meet current needs and buys time for sustainable solutions,” McGown said.
Also at Friday’s meeting, the board tied 4-4 on a vote on whether to take a stance on a bill in the state legislature that would hold third graders back who are identified as having a “proficient reading deficiency.”
Under LB1050, which Sen. Dave Murman introduced for Gov. Jim Pillen, the Nebraska Department of Education would set a score threshold for assessments to identify students who are not reading at grade level.
Board member Deborah Neary, who represents part of Omaha, brought a motion to change the board’s stance to instead oppose the bill. The motion ultimately failed, meaning the board’s official stance is neutral.
“There’s a lot of parents that feel like this is government overreach. That it’s government making decisions that should be up to parents and teachers,” Neary said. “That it’s so broad, and that it is actually punishing students instead of focusing on the positive interventions and strategies that could be in place to help those students.”
Board member Lisa Schonhoff, who represents part of northeast Nebraska and voted to keep a neutral stance, said there are situations where it is better to hold a student back. She recalled one from when she was a teacher choosing to hold back a kindergartner.
“I didn’t want to burn out the teacher, and I knew it was going to be more detrimental for that student to move on when he wasn’t ready,” Schonhoff said. “Everyone has a different brain. They advance at different levels.”
The bill has not been promoted to the floor yet.
Board members also rejected on a 4-4 vote a contract with ECDataLab to help with combining state data from various departments on birth to age 5 in areas like early literacy and access to early childhood education. The contract would have been funded by a federal grant that the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is leading.
Schonhoff said she believes there are people in Nebraska who are capable of analyzing and putting together the data. Several other members also had questions about how this data would be used and how impactful it would be.
Melody Hobson with the Nebraska Department of Education said the data would stay within Nebraska and would help aggregate data that is already collected across the state to better understand early childhood education.
Over a year after first requesting the board increase requirements to become a theater teacher, board members passed a rule change that will help colleges have theater education programs.
The old rule had theater and speech as supplemental endorsements, meaning students interested in becoming teachers in those areas had to get a degree in something else along with taking classes in theater or speech education.
Now, those areas have been upgraded to subject endorsements, which means students don’t need to get a degree in another area. They will be able to just get a degree in theater or speech education.
The board will meet for its next regularly scheduled board meeting on May 8 in Bellevue.