and maybe they are. The potential for abuse in this law seems apparent to me, though. When I went to school there were kids that were just different. They didn't really fit in anywhere and had few friends. They weren't sick, but I could see how a well meaning teacher, who is not professionally trained in mental illness diagnoses, could use this law to single kids he or she just doesn't like for whatever reason and not necessarily for the reason of the presence of a mental health problem.

As a clinical psychologist, there is no way that I can condone this.

This is just another attempt to cut costs. Schools hire psychologists just for this purpose. Teachers do not need to add mental health diagnosis, marksmanship to stop evil shooters, etc. They need to be free to do the jobs that they have training for - teaching.

Let them teach. I and others in my field are more than willing to do our jobs to assist them.

Not make diagnoses (whatever the hell a psych dx means in 2013).

That was the intent of Obama authorizing HHS to spend ~60 million nation-wide on a similar effort.

It's unclear exactly what sort of training they will get, many states already require some sort of ed psych/developmental psych courses for pre-service teachers. Politicians seem to be most concerned about issues of 'abnormal psych' that "lead to violence", but it isn't clear what the curriculum would include.

I wonder and can't be certain that either the federal or Texas programs training will be adequate to the task, or that all teachers will perform well, or that there isn't a potential for misuse of a referral process. "Mentally-illing" difficult students by teachers has a long history of problems and contributes to the controversial use of psych meds in children.

But, there isn't any doubt that America is afraid of the mentally ill and politicians motivated by fear are concerned enough to have a desire to do "something".

The logic behind the effort seems to be that teachers spend as much or more time in direct contact with school-age children than their parents/guardians--so they are in a position to observe the semiotics of mental problems if they know what to look for... hence training of teachers.

American politicians at both state and federal seem to believe that teachers trained to recognize potential signs are in a position to do a better job of what teachers in most districts already do: flag students with potential problems and set the machinery of 'the system' in motion for referral.

They 'get' making requirements for teacher certification...they don't seem as able to 'get' that caboose...clinical treatment...costs real money.

this has potential for great harm.

Teachers may spend a great deal of time with students but not in the way that would truly reveal the need for mental health care.

It is one thing to notice 'off behavior', it is quite another to go the next step forward and describe that behavior as indicative of a potential mental health problem. Giving them 'just enough' to be dangerous is what this looks like. I see it more and more in my clinical setting. Patients come in who have read this book or gone to that site. Oh, I am not depressed says one, I just have PTSD. Or, I am just fine, it is just my family that is dysfunction, not me.

Bad can of worms to be opening, but pyschology/psychiatry as I have known it is no longer the same entity.

from all the "dangerous people".

It's not just psychiatry that isn't what it once was. It's the whole freakin' country that isn't what it was.

I really hadn't thought about that angle but you are probably right.

We both agree on your last sentence in full!

Nice to hear that