Pupil health: school-based health centers: grant program: Mental Health Services Act: Mental Health Services Fund.

Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for this purpose. Existing law requires a school of a school district or a county office of education and a charter school to notify pupils and parents or guardians of pupils no less than twice during the school year on how to initiate access to available pupil mental health services on campus or in the community, as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, to establish a Public School Health Center Support Program to assist school health centers, which are defined as centers or programs, located at or near local educational agencies, that provide age-appropriate health care services at the program site or through referrals, as specified. Existing law, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) , an initiative measure enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election, establishes the Mental Health Services Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to fund various county mental health programs, including children's mental health care, adult and older adult mental health care, prevention and early intervention programs, and innovative programs. Existing law authorizes the MHSA to be amended by a 23 vote of the Legislature if the amendments are consistent with, and further the purposes of, the MHSA. This bill would amend the MHSA by appropriating $250,000,000 from the Mental Health Services Fund, after all existing MHSA programs have been funded, to the State Controller to distribute to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide annual grants of up to $250,000 each to certain local educational agencies serving high school pupils to establish or improve school-based health centers that provide mental health services provided or supervised by an appropriately licensed or credentialed mental health professional, as provided. The bill would also define school-based health centers as centers or programs, located at or near local educational agencies, that provide age-appropriate health care services at the program site or through referrals. The bill would require grant funds to be used for activities that will help pupils to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit in order to learn successfully, and would authorize grant funds to be used for personnel to support pupil mental health, as provided. The bill would only authorize school-based health centers to use grant funds to develop new, or expand the scope of existing, programs. The bill would require the State Department of Education to identify criteria for the evaluation of applicants and the awarding of grants, require a grant applicant to certify that it has consulted with the local county mental health department in grant program planning and service delivery, and authorize the department to give preference to applicants whose grant application demonstrates greater program collaboration with the county. The bill would state the finding and declaration of the Legislature that these changes are consistent with, and further the intent of, the MHSA.