{"id":1342,"date":"2023-03-21T09:57:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2025-02-27T09:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:22:13","slug":"108a-lb527","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/2023\/03\/21\/108a-lb527\/","title":{"rendered":"108A LB527"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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March 21, 2023<\/p>

Senator Dave Murman, Chairperson
Senator Joni Albrecht
Senator Tom Briese
Senator Lynne Walz
Senator Danielle Conrad
Senator Rita Sanders
Senator Justin Wayne
Senator Lou Ann Linehan<\/p>

Good afternoon distinguished members of the Education Committee:<\/p>

This letter is a proponent letter for LB527.\u00a0<\/p>

LPS supports LB527 because it would provide additional resources to address the mental health needs of students by appropriating twelve million dollars from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to reimburse school districts and Educational Service Units (ESUs) for allowable mental health expenditures.<\/p>

LPS believes that when students receive the mental health services that they require, it benefits their academic achievement.\u00a0 LPS has found that receiving mental health services onsite in schools is preferable for many students and more supportive of their education.\u00a0 Currently, LPS offers integrated community mental health services within LPS for students who have gone through the approval process with their parents.\u00a0 Most of these services are provided at Title I buildings.\u00a0 In 2020-2021, 396 students received services in school from three local mental health agencies.\u00a0 Some of the reasons that students participated in services are included in the following list:<\/p>

  • Attempted previous interventions<\/li>
  • Significant stressor<\/li>
  • Mental health signs\/symptoms<\/li>
  • Disruption in multiple life domains due to stressors<\/li>
  • Barriers to participation in mental health services outside of school<\/li><\/ul>

    LPS has found that it is advantageous to receive services in school because it limits the amount of time out of class to attend appointments in the community; it opens up opportunities for collaboration among the school, the therapist, and the families; and the services reduces the stressors that interfere with students learning.<\/p>

    When surveyed following the 2020-21 school year:<\/p>

    • 100% of School Staff want therapy in their school building.<\/li>
    • 92% of Students agree or somewhat agree that therapy helps them handle their daily lives.<\/li>
    • 89% of School Staff believe they have a moderately high level of collaboration with the School-Based Therapist<\/li><\/ul>

      LB527 would provide funding that would allow this support to continue and expand to better meet the needs of our students and families.<\/p>

      For these reasons, we are proponents of LB527.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Testimony on LB527 – A bill to provide reimbursements for mental health expenditures; to state intent for appropriations; to change provisions relating to local system formula resources; to harmonize provisions; and to repeal the original sections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,1],"tags":[97,130,133],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testimony","category-uncategorized","tag-108a","tag-andrew-ashelford","tag-lb627"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3953,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/3953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}