^{Representative Valerie Longhurst (l) and Senator Marie Pinkney (r) of Delaware}

A bill to address the mental health needs of children in Delaware (HB 100) passed both the House and Senate unanimously in June and now awaits Governor John Carney’s signature.

Strong support for the bill came from the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA), said Deb Stevens, director of instructional advocacy at DSEA. DSEA and the Department of Education collaborate on PreK-12 trauma/resilience issues and work closely with Trauma Matters Delaware (TMD), said Leslie Brower, TMD director.

The bill establishes a “mental health unit” for Delaware elementary schools that requires a ratio of 250 full-time equivalent students grades K-5 for a full-time school counselor, school social worker, or licensed clinical social worker. Employment of a full-time school psychologist is required for 700 full time equivalent students for grades K-5. Mental health services are defined as “prevention, response, and coordination services delivered to students in elementary schools.”

DSEA is hopeful the governor will sign HB 100 soon, despite his concerns about the cost of the bill. Dwyer says his heart is supportive but his deep convictions about fiscal responsibility have dampened his enthusiasm for the legislation.

Kristin Dwyer, DSEA director of legislation and political organizing, says the bill is a game-changer for addressing trauma.

"For every 250 elementary students in a local education agency (LEA)—a district public school or charter—the LEA earns a unit of funding that can be used to hire elementary school counselors, licensed clinical social workers, or school social workers," she explains. "For every 750 elementary students in a LEA, the LEA earns a unit of funding for either a school psychologist or licensed mental health therapist. The LEA ultimately decides what position to use the unit for. The bill goes on to add that if there are fractional units earned (for instance if a LEA earns 1.5 units), the LEA can use the fractional (.5) as cash to support mental health services district wide regardless of age.”

The bill will create about 300 positions in elementary schools around the state at a cost of $26 million, Dwyer says, aligning with Executive Order 24 that pushes out trauma-informed practices in all state policies. She says it will provide teachers with the ability to access the expertise of mental health professions when student needs require more than simple de-escalation. In addition to students, school personnel from the principal to the office secretary, often the first contact with families in crisis, will benefit from this expertise and support, she says. A bridge to services to address needs such as homelessness and food insecurity, which have been exacerbated by COVID, is enhanced by this additional capacity in schools.

Dwyer says the bill has wide support among Democrats and Republicans who reported that they have seen the need in their communities whether urban, suburban, and rural.  She gave “1000% credit” to the bill sponsors—Representative Valerie Longhurst and House Majority Leader and Senator Marie Pinkney, a trauma social worker for a healthcare organization. She said that hundreds of supportive communications sent to legislators and an ad on the bill received thousands of page views. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings also penned an op-ed in support of the bill, addressing the need for mental health services as a strategy to reduce justice-involvement by young students.

The preamble of the bill includes several statements that recognize the pervasiveness of trauma and its impact on learning. It says students come to school with “significant unmet needs that impact the students’ ability to learn in school, such as hunger, homelessness, trauma, mental health issues” and “without adequate resources to support our students, these challenges manifest as frequent, and at times severe, disruptions in school that impact learning and affect all our students.”

This bill will provide significant financial support for needed mental health expertise, boosting the work already done in Delaware through the Compassionate Schools Program and other initiatives in individual school districts. One example in the Colonial School District in New Castle illustrates how trauma-informed practices are being embedded in school environments in the state.

An example of practice to policy

Trauma-informed approaches are foundational to the work of Khayree Bey, 2021 Colonial School District Teacher of the Year. A July 19 article by Cris Barrish for WHYY, reported on a meeting organized by the Delaware Lt. Governor, Bethany Hall-Long, that featured Bey’s work to teach mindfulness and yoga to students and educators in the Colonial School District.

“Our kids come to school with an invisible backpack," said Bey, "and in that invisible backpack, a lot of time, is trauma.’’

The event included educators, politicians, and child advocates, and showcased the district’s commitment to the social and emotional well-being of its students, according to the article. The Colonial School District is one of 19 school districts in Delaware and is located in the city of New Castle. New Castle is one of three counties in the state.

In his District biosketch, Bey is described as being proud of “his equity work with the District, and co-facilitates numerous equity-based trauma and poverty informed book studies, zoom lectures, and more saying, 'I believe this is important because our students arrive at school with a tremendous amount of trauma from toxic stress. This trauma directly impedes their ability to excel academically, physically, socially and emotionally.'”

Bey addressed a panel that included Amy and Patrick Kennedy who live in New Jersey but have close ties with people in nearby Delaware. Amy Kennedy is a former teacher in New Jersey and Education Director of The Kennedy Forum founded by Patrick Kennedy, a former U.S. congressman from Rhode Island, that focuses on mental health advocacy, with an emphasis on insurance parity for mental health services. In addition to The Kennedy Forum that has a national reach, there is The Kennedy Forum Illinois (KFI). Recently, Jane Stevens, founder and publisher of PACEs Connection, moderated a webinar sponsored by KFI with support from Aetna and Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare. Here is the link to the webinar “Beyond Employee Assistance Programs: How Organizations Can Take Care of Those, Taking Care of Others.”