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Lines 157-162: By June 30, 2023, the Department of Education shall review and update, as necessary, school counseling frameworks and standards educator practices and professional conduct principles and any other student services personnel guidelines, standards, or frameworks in accordance with the requirements of this act. Florida would rewrite school counseling standards. The combination of the bill’s broad, vague language and punitive enforcement mechanism could lead to a similar dynamic. King, a University of Florida law professor, noted that the idea of deputizing parents to enforce a law - at schools’ expense - had previously been used in legislation limiting discussion of critical race theory, resulting in schools pre-emptively canceling events and removing reading materials from shelves, in order to avoid expensive litigation. This is the enforcement mechanism that supporters say would give parents a way to hold schools accountable, and which educators say could create a chilling effect. A court may award damages and shall award reasonable attorney fees and court costs to a parent who receives declaratory or injunctive relief. Bring an action against the school district to obtain a declaratory judgment that the school district procedure or practice violates this paragraph and seek injunctive relief. Lines 129-130 146-151: If a concern is not resolved by the school district, a parent may …. Parents could sue schools for violating the vaguely written bill, and districts would have to cover the costs. They may ask students how often they experience emotions like worry or sadness, and to what extent they enjoy school or have trouble paying attention.
It takes particular aim at the growing practice of using mental health or social-emotional screening questionnaires, which are intended to determine what students might need. This provision requires schools to create an opt-out procedure for mental and physical health care services, which could include individual counseling or support groups.
… Before administering a student well-being questionnaire or health screening form to a student in kindergarten through grade 3, the school district must provide the questionnaire or health screening form to the parent and obtain the permission of the parent. Lines 106-109 114-118: At the beginning of the school year, each school district shall notify parents of each healthcare service offered at their student’s school and the option to withhold consent or decline any specific service. Parents would have the right to opt their children out of counseling and health services. But they argue that a blanket requirement for parental disclosure in all but the most extreme circumstances could lead students to approach counselors less frequently, degrading relationships that can be some of the most trusting in students’ lives.
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For example, if a child casually reaches out to a counselor to discuss stress about grades, and in conversation also brings up another mental health concern, would parents be contacted?Ī section of the bill allows school staff to skip informing parents if there is risk of “abuse, abandonment, or neglect.” Counselors often wrestle with how to balance students’ desire for confidentiality with the need to keep families informed about their children’s well-being.
It is unclear how strictly schools would follow the directive to inform parents of every “change” in a student’s health services. They argue that schools should not affirm children who say they are transgender if it means contradicting their parents.
Still, this bill was written in large part because activists are worried about how schools respond to students who question their gender identity. This parental-notification requirement appears to apply to any student, regardless of age or circumstances - the student could be seeking health services for gender issues, sexuality, depression, substance use, a parental divorce or any other challenge. The procedures must reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children by requiring school district personnel to encourage a student to discuss issues relating to his or her well-being with his or her parent or to facilitate discussion of the issue with the parent. Lines 67-78: In accordance with the rights of parents … adopt procedures for notifying a student’s parent if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student. Schools would be required to notify parents when children receive mental, emotional or physical health services, unless educators believe there is a risk of “abuse, abandonment, or neglect.”