Supporting children’s mental health could be the topic of the committee dealing with children’s issues in this session. This follows the passage of her three sweeping bills focused on children’s mental health, which lawmakers started in the last session.
Both the school board and the children’s board plan to focus on mental health as well as other issues such as supporting educators and preventing sex crimes against children, board leaders said. advocate said last week.
Rep. Liz Linehan, Democrat for Cheshire and co-chair of the Children’s Committee, said: “We intend to focus entirely on helping children grow into happy and productive members of society.”
With many young people across the country dealing with heightened anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance abuse, there is a continuing focus on mental health.
Isolation and disruption of daily life during the pandemic have exacerbated many pre-existing mental health problems for children, and in 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General will issue recommendations on the National Youth Mental Health Crisis. bottom.
A task force report examining the comprehensive needs of children in the state, released in December 2022, called for more support for children who have experienced trauma and more places for people to access health care. , the need for more mental health care for people of all ages is also discussed.
MPs called mental health a defining issue of the final session. Congress is asking educators themselves how to curb the onset of stress and burnout and deal with heightened lack of education throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation is expanding beyond the students as they plan to emphasize.
Rep. Kathleen McCarty, a Waterford Republican and influential school board member, said: “We know that this past pandemic has imposed so many new responsibilities on teachers to look to social, emotional and academic recovery practices. Responsibilities were placed on teachers, and they went through a great deal of stress and anxiety to meet these needs.”
At a joint press conference Tuesday, lawmakers and members of the Connecticut Education Association discussed the importance of making teaching a more attractive profession. We talked.
“Especially in communities of color… [students] School Board co-chair and East Hartford Democrat Jeff Curry said: “Then why, in any world, would they want to do that? I hope more people will try.”
Similarly, some members of the CEA believe that while financial investment is a priority, providing more preparation time for educators, reducing class sizes, and providing mentorship opportunities for young teachers. He argued that providing in-class solutions, such as doing so, was also a priority.
CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey said: “This is an investment in supporting the needs of our children.”
Many commissions started the session with organizing meetings containing few action items, but the legislative committee ended the session on Tuesday by voting to work on about 20 bills that will be filled out in detail as the session progresses. have started.
Ideas and details of the bill will go through a public hearing process, Linehan said.
Republicans on the committee opposed that method of passing the bill, saying there wasn’t enough detail to vote on the idea.
Rep. Anne Dauphine, a Killingley Republican and a leading member of the Children’s Committee, said, “I think we need to be a little more thrifty in what we’re doing in terms of cost and effectiveness.” . Dauphinais added that he would like the session to consider custody.
Children’s board leaders have worked on everything from licensing local government summer camps to keeping cannabis safe and creating state police undercover units focused on online sexual abuse of minors. I’m planning on working on the problem.
The Commission passed four bill titles that broadly address children’s programs, safety, health and services. They also voted to draft a commission bill “on the mental, physical and emotional health of children.”
“We’re jumping in and starting,” Linehan said in an interview.
