School Based Mental Health Resources

House Passes Mental Health Parity!

October 3, 2008

The long campaign to pass parity legislation is over, with a stunning win in Congress.

The U.S. House of Representatives has just voted to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that includes the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.  The vote total on H.R. 1424 was 263-171.  The roll call will be posted at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml

This action clears the legislation for presentation to the President, who will sign it very quickly.

Thank you to all organizations that have worked with us since 2001!  Thank you to the sponsors of the legislation: Senators Domenici, Kennedy and Enzi, and Representatives Kennedy and Ramstad.  Their leadership on this vital issue has been stellar.  We could not have had more energetic champions for our cause.

Washington representatives of supporter organizations should join us for a spontaneous victory celebration – right now – at Tortilla Coast, on the corner of First and C Streets, SE (by Capitol South Metro).  (Cash bar).

We will be back in touch about a more formal celebration to be held sometime in November.

Text of the Legislation: Parity is on pages 310 to 344.  H.R. 1424 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Section-by-Section of Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Resources: Fact sheets, analyses of the parity legislation and past letters to Congress are posted at http://www.mhlg.org/page18.html

From The Autistic Self Advocacy Network...

Hello,

As some of you may already be aware from news articles and blog posts on the topic, last week a Morningside Elementary Kindergarten teacher had students "vote out" of the class a 5-year old autistic student named Alex Barton. According to the news article, the teacher had each of Alex's classmates, including his sole friend in the class, state publicly what they disliked about him and then announced that they would take a vote to remove him from the class. Alex has not been back to school since and has suffered significant emotional trauma as a result of this incident. Regardless of who you are or what your connection to the autistic and autism communities might be, I think we can all agree that this is unacceptable.

We need to band together to prevent future such abuses from occurring, to ensure that this teacher is properly disciplined and to encourage this school to adopt both a strong bullying prevention policy and training on respect for all forms of diversity aimed at both teachers and students. As such, we've provided contact information below for you to write to communicate your outrage. Please be polite yet firm in your comments, pointing out the unacceptability of such actions when aimed at any student, as well as the need for this school to adopt policies to prevent this from happening in the future. This is an opportunity to drive home the message that we will not stand by while one of our own is abused. We ask that you please cc: info@autisticadvocacy.org in your e-mails to the school district so we can keep track of the strength and sources of this response. Remember: abusive messages hurt our cause - please be respectful in your comments.

Contact info:

Morningside Elementary School Principal:
Mrs. Marcia Cully
cullym@stlucie.k12.fl.us
(772) 337-6730

St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent:
Michael J. Lannon
4204 Okeechobee Road
Ft. Pierce, FL 34947-5414
Phone: (772) 429-3925
FAX: (772) 429-3916
lannonm@stlucie.k12.fl.us

St. Lucie County School Board Chair:
Carol Hilson
(772) 519-0397
HilsonC@stlucie.k12.fl.us

Vice Chair:
Judith Miller
(772) 528-4545
MillerJ@stlucie.k12.fl.us