[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 466 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 466

 To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct 
the Secretary of Education to make grants to local educational agencies 
  for the recruitment, training, and hiring of 100,000 individuals to 
                 serve as school-based resource staff.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 6, 2001

    Mrs. Mink of Hawaii (for herself, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. 
  Andrews, Mr. Scott, Mr. George Miller of California, Mr. Engel, Mr. 
Stark, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Ford, Mr. Rush, Mr. Hinojosa, Ms. 
  Schakowsky, Mr. Owens, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Kucinich) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                             the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct 
the Secretary of Education to make grants to local educational agencies 
  for the recruitment, training, and hiring of 100,000 individuals to 
                 serve as school-based resource staff.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. RESOURCE STAFF FOR STUDENTS.

    Title X of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 8001 et. seq) is amended by adding at the end the following:

                 ``PART L--RESOURCE STAFF FOR STUDENTS

``SEC. 10993. FINDINGS.

    ``Congress finds the following:
            ``(1) Although 7,500,000 children under the age of 18 
        require mental health services, fewer than 1 in 5 of these 
        children receive the services.
            ``(2) Across the United States, counseling professionals 
        have an extremely busy caseload and often students do no get 
        the help they need. The current national average ratio of 
        students to counselors in elementary and secondary schools is 
        513:1.
            ``(3) Schools in the United States need more mental health 
        professionals, and the funds needed to hire staff to 
        specifically serve students.
            ``(4) The maximum recommended ratio of students-to-
        counselors is 250:1.
            ``(5) Existing counselors are severely taxed to perform 
        duties that are largely administrative in nature, such as 
        scheduling. They are burdened with many demands regarding 
        placement in colleges, texting, career guidance, and the like.
            ``(6) Student populations are expected to grow 
        significantly over the next few years. School-based services 
        for students will be in great demand. With expected large scale 
        retirements, more than 100,000 new dedicated resource staff for 
        students will be needed to increase student-to-staff service 
        availability.
            ``(7) Federal support for reducing the student-to-staff 
        ratio would pay for itself, through reduced violence and 
        substance abuse, and through improvements in students' academic 
        achievement.

``SEC. 10994. PURPOSES.

    ``The purposes of this part are to assist local educational 
agencies in recruiting, training, and hiring 100,000 school-based 
resource staff to specifically work with students--
            ``(1) to reduce the student-to-counseling ratios 
        nationally, in grades 6-12, to an average of 1 such staff for 
        every 250 students as recommended in a report by the Institute 
        of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences relating to 
        schools and health, issued in 1997;
            ``(2) to help address the mental, emotional, and 
        developmental needs of public school students; and
            ``(3) to support other school staff and teachers in 
        reaching students early before problems arise, conducting 
        behavioral interventions to improve school discipline, and 
        developing the awareness and skills to identify early warning 
        signs of violence and the need for mental health services.

``SEC. 10995. STUDENT RESOURCE STAFF PROGRAM.

    ``(a) In General.--In accordance with this section, the Secretary 
shall make grants to local educational agencies to assist such agencies 
in providing resource staff to meet students' needs.
    ``(b) Distribution.--In making grants under this section, the 
Secretary shall ensure that there is a fair distribution of grants 
nationwide.
    ``(c) Duration.--Each grant made under this section shall be for a 
period not to exceed 3 years.
    ``(d) Application.--
            ``(1) In general.--Each local educational agency seeking a 
        grant under this section shall submit an application to the 
        Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by such 
        information as the Secretary may reasonably require.
            ``(2) Contents.--Each application for a grant under this 
        section shall--
                    ``(A) describe the secondary public school 
                population to be targeted by the program, the 
                particular personal, social, emotional, education, and 
                career development needs of such population, and the 
                current school counseling resources available for 
                meeting such needs;
                    ``(B) describe the activities, services, and 
                training to be provided by the program and the specific 
                approaches to be used to meet the needs described in 
                subparagraph (A);
                    ``(C) describe the methods to be used to evaluate 
                the outcomes and effectiveness of the program;
                    ``(D) document that the applicant has the personnel 
                qualified to develop, implement, and administer the 
                program; and
                    ``(E) assure that the funds made available under 
                this part for any fiscal year will be used to 
                supplement and, to the extent practicable, increase the 
                level of funds that would otherwise be available from 
                non-Federal sources for the program described in the 
                application, and in no case supplant such funds from 
                non-Federal sources.
    ``(e) Use of Funds.--Funds made available to local educational 
agencies under this section shall be used to provide resource staff in 
accordance with the purposes described in section 10994.
    ``(f) Definition.--For purposes of this part the term `resource 
staff' means an individual who has documented competence and training 
in mental health to be able to provide services to children and 
adolescents in a school setting and who--
            ``(1) possesses State licensure or certification in mental 
        health granted by an independent professional regulatory 
        authority;
            ``(2) possesses national certification in mental health or 
        in a related specialty granted by an independent professional 
        organization;
            ``(3) holds a minimum of a master's degree in school 
        counseling from a program accredited by the Council for 
        Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs or 
        the equivalent;
            ``(4) possesses a minimum of 60 graduate semester hours in 
        school psychology from an institution of higher education and 
        has completed 1,200 clock hours in a supervised school 
        psychology internship, of which 600 hours shall be in the 
        school setting, and possesses State licensure or certification 
        in school psychology in the State in which the individual 
        works; or
            ``(5) holds a master's degree in social work and is 
        licensed or certified by the State in which services are to be 
        provided or holds a school social work specialist credential.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this part $2,800,000,000 for fiscal year 
2002, $3,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2003, $3,200,000,000 for fiscal 
year 2004, and $3,500,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and each fiscal year 
thereafter.''.
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