Employment Of School Mental Health Professionals

Under current law, a mental health professional must be licensed by the department of education (department) in order to work in a school. The bill authorizes a school or a school district, the state charter school institute, and a board of cooperative services that operates a school, or the division of youth services to employ certain mental health professionals school-based therapists who are not licensed by the department but hold a Colorado license for their profession to work in coordination with licensed special service providers coordinating mental health supports for students . Before being employed, the mental health professional school-based therapists must satisfy other requirements for nonlicensed school employees, including a fingerprint-based criminal background check. Any mental health professional school-based therapists employed may be supervised by a mentor special services provider in the field in which the person is employed or a licensed administrator.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)