Educators to discuss mental health funding options

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Monday, September 20, 2004 9:37 PM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- Several North County school district superintendents will meet Wednesday to begin mapping out a plan to deal with San Diego County's decision to abandon mental health services for special education students, officials said Monday.

Educators have lined up to oppose the county's bid to drop the $10 million program. In abandoning the services, county officials placed the blame on Sacramento, saying the state has failed for years to fund the pricey program.

Encinitas Union School District Superintendent Doug DeVore said that if districts wind up paying for the program, it would be "a huge encroachment to public education."

The county annually funds mental health services for about 2,000 special education students. The program will be underfunded as of Nov. 30 unless school districts step up to pay the bills, officials said.

The federally mandated services, which officials said will continue regardless of who pays for them, include counseling and therapy for depression, anxiety and peer relationships for students who have learning disabilities and emotional problems, as well as more serious needs.

Mental health services offered to those students may be through outpatient counseling, day programs or residential treatment centers.

DeVore said funding services for just a handful of emotionally-ill Encinitas students could seriously drain the General Fund resources of nearly 6,000 other district students.

Abdollah Saadat, Encinitas' assistant superintendent of business services, said that last year the county paid $134,000 for mental health services for Encinitas' special education students.

San Dieguito Union High School district officials said this month that if the county stops funding the program, the district might have to pay $500,000 to continue services for about 40 special education students.

Joseph Schwartzberg, who heads a coalition of 14 school districts from Del Mar to Fallbrook, said other programs and services may see their funding cut in order to foot mental health services bills.

A Superior Court judge ruled in July that the county could stop providing these unfunded services. Disappointing many area educators, the state Department of Finance decided last week not to appeal that ruling.

The California School Boards Association has estimated the program will cost $130 million statewide this year. The state has proposed $100 million in funding.

DeVore said the state's proposal is inadequate.

"It's not enough," DeVore said. "If it were enough, you wouldn't have four counties suing."

H.D. Palmer of the state Department of Finance said Monday that a new law passed this month will decrease the program's costs by cutting the number of students who need to be placed in expensive residential treatment centers and utilizing more preventive counseling and intervention measures for at-risk students.

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 943-2313 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.