A hallway at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake is pictured on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
A Utah bill requiring school mental health professionals to get parental consent prior to providing therapy to children at school has received backlash from mental health care community members who argue that the policy would go against their code of ethics and could harm children.
However, the Republican majority of the Utah House Education Committee, which described the bill as an effort to enhance parental rights, voted 11-2 to recommend it to the full House for consideration.
HB281, or Health Curriculum and Procedures Amendments, sponsored by Eagle Mountain Republican Rep. Stephanie Gricius, doesn’t include basic stress management in the notification requirements and would permit stabilization in emergency cases.
But every non-emergency therapy session should be notified to parents.
“We’re not saying that a kid has to go get consent every time they walk into a counseling office,” Gricius told the committee on Friday. “But if they’re going to be digging deeper than the stress that we deal with on a daily basis into some more traumatic issues that would then cross that line over into therapy.”
During the public comment period for the bill, therapists from different organizations agreed that parental consent is essential for therapy in schools, and many explained that Utah code already ensures parents’ involvement by requiring written consent before students are screened for mental health conditions.
There was an element that concerned them — the fact that parents can give a list of topics that cannot be discussed in the sessions.
“A school-based mental health therapist may not address a topic or issue for which a parent has expressly stated an intent for the therapist to not address with the student,” the bill reads. However, children would be able to report information on abuse or neglect.
Gricius’ bill proposes there be a conversation between the school and the parent, where they can discuss the reasons why the school provider is suggesting therapy, and what parents’ topic boundaries are.
Larissa Archuleta, a licensed clinical social worker who has done school-based mental health therapy, said it’s a common practice and mandatory in Utah schools to have parental consent.
However, she took issue with the state’s ban on discussing specific topics with students, since having parents dictating what can be discussed goes against the National Association of Social Workers’ code of ethics.
“Parental notification of all therapy discussions raise additional concerns. So there’s a potential for harm,” Archuleta said. “This requires children from disclosing critical information, particularly in situations where safety may be compromised.”
House Majority Whip, Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, who heavily advocated for the bill, said she had concerns about the code of ethics’ regulations, as children cannot legally consent, and since schools are in the mix of the agreements.
“(Therapy) is something that has been added on to education in our modern age. It’s not something schools were ever designed to contemplate,” Lisonbee said. “And so I guess I would just say that it’s very concerning that a code of ethics is being referred to when there are several insertions between a parent and a child in this discussion.”
Some parents and conservative organizations defended the bill, arguing that parents should be at the forefront of their children’s care.
“We love all the benefits we get from therapy and I was sad to tell my kids, who even were asking for it, ‘no, you can’t go,’” said Brooke Stevens, a parent commenter, pointing to a previous statement from a mental health professional who said they ask children if they are experiencing suicidal thoughts. “That would probably be my No. 1 topic. You will not ask my child if they’re feeling suicidal. That’s a leading question.”
The Davis School District case
Notifying parents about their children’s therapy session is already a practice in some schools, Gricius said. Davis School District already does it and, she said, in her opinion “they’re probably the best school mental health program in the state.”
Kevin Labresh, a psychologist at Davis School District, said his workplace has been able to balance informed consent and parent involvement while providing effective mental health services.
The district’s policy is to always ask for parents’ consent before meeting with or observing a student. Then, they have a conversation about treatment goals and specific topics that would be discussed. However, there’s not a guideline in place to ban topics from the sessions.
“I think the reason for that is that would potentially hinder our ability to address important mental health issues like suicide, which could pose a danger,” he said.
Children can also move quickly from one topic to the other, which is hard to control, Labresh said.
“And I worry about disruptions to the therapeutic rapport process if we’re shutting down topics that are important to the child,” explained Labresh, who said he couldn’t support the bill in its current form.
Most lawmakers in the committee sided with Gricius. Lisonbee said the bill would place the responsibility for children and their mental health care with parents.
“During the discussion, it was said that ‘a parent may not be the best advocate for a child.’ And while there are times when I think that may be true, I think it is important to ask, whose job is it to determine who is the best advocate for a child?,” Lisonbee said. “It was also said that we are putting children at risk if we pass this bill. And I suggest that we are putting children at risk if we do not pass this bill.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.