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On January evening, visitors looked out of their Zoom screens with cheerful smiles when the inspector introduced staff from the Generations Family Health Center, the nonprofit health group that will serve the school.
The plan was for licensed therapists from Generations to work in a space on the third floor of the school. Students can be guided by teachers or family members or come by themselves, and therapy sessions can be scheduled during school hours. Therapists would bill the insurance on a sliding fee scale, using federal funds if needed, so that there would be no cost to schooling and little, if any, cost to families.
Then a chill entered the room as the board members began to barge in questions. The smiles of the visitors faded.
Do they advise students on contraception or abortion? (They don’t give medical advice, but they can discuss it if it comes.) If children were referred and didn’t want therapy, would they be forced to do so? (No.) Are students subjected to ridicule and stigma by their peers receiving treatment? (I hope not.) Can they get therapy without their parents knowing?
Probably, yes, it was the answer. By law, clinicians in Connecticut can provide six sessions of mental health treatment to minors without parental consent under a narrow set of circumstances – if the young child sought treatment, it was considered clinically necessary and parental notification was required, it would deter the minor from seeking treatment.
This provision is rarely used; In the nearby town of Putnam, which is home to a school-based mental health clinic that has treated hundreds of students for nine years, Putnam school board member Michael Morrill said no child has been treated without parental consent.
But that was a major point of contention for Killingly board member Norm Ferron, who said the arrangement would “give the student much greater access to counseling without parental approval,” and I’m not too enthusiastic about it.
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