Pupil Mental Health Services Program Act.

Existing law, the School-Based Early Mental Health Intervention and Prevention Services for Children Act of 1991, authorizes the Director of Health Care Services, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to provide matching grants to local educational agencies to pay the state share of the costs of providing school-based early mental health intervention and prevention services to eligible pupils at schoolsites of eligible pupils, subject to the availability of funding each year. This bill would enact a similar program to be known as the Pupil Mental Health Services Program Act. The act would authorize the State Department of Education, in consultation with the Superintendent, beginning with grants for the 2020–21 school year and subject to the availability of funding each year, to award matching grants to local educational agencies, as defined, throughout the state for programs that provide supportive services, defined to mean services that enhance the mental health and social-emotional development of pupils, to eligible pupils at schoolsites. The act would award matching grants for a period of not more than 3 years and would prohibit a single schoolsite from being awarded more than one grant. For these purposes, an eligible pupil would be defined as a pupil who attends kindergarten, including transitional kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, at a local educational agency. The bill would prescribe the procedure for a local educational agency to apply for a matching grant. The bill would also prohibit more than 10% of the moneys allocated to the department for these purposes from being used for program administration and evaluation. Existing law, the Mental Health Services Act, an initiative measure enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election, funds a system of county mental health plans for the provision of mental health services, as specified. The act establishes the Mental Health Services Fund to fund various county mental health programs by imposing a tax of 1% on annual incomes above $1,000,000. The act provides that it may be amended by the Legislature by a 23 vote of each house as long as the amendment is consistent with and furthers the intent of the act, and that the Legislature may also clarify procedures and terms of the act by majority vote. This bill would implement the Pupil Mental Health Services Program Act contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for purposes of that act from the administrative portion of the Mental Health Services Fund.