SECTION 1. RESOURCE STAFF FOR STUDENTS.
Title X of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8001 et. seq) is amended by add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘PART L—RESOURCE STAFF FOR STUDENTS
‘‘SEC. 10993. FINDINGS.
‘‘Congress finds the following:
‘‘(1) Although 7,500,000 children under the age
of 18 require mental health services, fewer than 1 in
5 of these children receive the services.
‘‘(2) Across the United States, counseling pro-
fessionals have an extremely busy caseload and often
students do no get the help they need. The current
national average ratio of students to counselors in
elementary and secondary schools is 513:1.
‘‘(3) Schools in the United States need more
mental health professionals, and the funds needed to
hire staff to specifically serve students.
‘‘(4) The maximum recommended ratio of stu-
dents-to-counselors is 250:1.
‘‘(5) Existing counselors are severely taxed to
perform duties that are largely administrative in na-
ture, such as scheduling. They are burdened with
many demands regarding placement in colleges,
texting, career guidance, and the like.
‘‘(6) Student populations are expected to grow
significantly over the next few years. School-based
services for students will be in great demand. With
expected large scale retirements, more than 100,000
new dedicated resource staff for students will be
needed to increase student-to-staff service avail-
ability.
‘‘(7) Federal support for reducing the student-
to-staff ratio would pay for itself, through reduced
violence and substance abuse, and through improve-
ments in students’ academic achievement.
‘‘SEC. 10994. PURPOSES.
‘‘The purposes of this part are to assist local edu-
cational agencies in recruiting, training, and hiring
100,000 school-based resource staff to specifically work
with students—
‘‘(1) to reduce the student-to-counseling ratios
nationally, in grades 6–12, to an average of 1 such
staff for every 250 students as recommended in a
report by the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academy of Sciences relating to schools and health,
issued in 1997;
‘‘(2) to help address the mental, emotional, and
developmental needs of public school students; and
‘‘(3) to support other school staff and teachers
in reaching students early before problems arise,
conducting behavioral interventions to improve
school discipline, and developing the awareness and
skills to identify early warning signs of violence and
the need for mental health services.
‘‘SEC. 10995. STUDENT RESOURCE STAFF PROGRAM.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with this section,
the Secretary shall make grants to local educational agen-
cies to assist such agencies in providing resource staff to
meet students’ needs.
‘‘(b) DISTRIBUTION.—In making grants under this
section, the Secretary shall ensure that there is a fair dis-
tribution of grants nationwide.
‘‘(c) DURATION.—Each grant made under this sec-
tion shall be for a period not to exceed 3 years.
‘‘(d) APPLICATION.—
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Each local educational
agency seeking a grant under this section shall sub-
mit an application to the Secretary at such time, in
such manner, and accompanied by such information
as the Secretary may reasonably require.
‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Each application for a grant
under this section shall—
‘‘(A) describe the secondary public school
population to be targeted by the program, the
particular personal, social, emotional, education,
and career development needs of such popu-
lation, and the current school counseling re-
sources available for meeting such needs;
‘‘(B) describe the activities, services, and
training to be provided by the program and the
specific approaches to be used to meet the
needs described in subparagraph (A);
‘‘(C) describe the methods to be used to
evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of the
program;
‘‘(D) document that the applicant has the
personnel qualified to develop, implement, and
administer the program; and
‘‘(E) assure that the funds made available
under this part for any fiscal year will be used
to supplement and, to the extent practicable, in-
crease the level of funds that would otherwise
be available from non-Federal sources for the
program described in the application, and in no
case supplant such funds from non-Federal
sources.
‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds made available to local
educational agencies under this section shall be used to
provide resource staff in accordance with the purposes de-
scribed in section 10994.
‘‘(f) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this part the
term ‘resource staff’ means an individual who has docu-
mented competence and training in mental health to be
able to provide services to children and adolescents in a
school setting and who—
‘‘(1) possesses State licensure or certification in
mental health granted by an independent profes-
sional regulatory authority;
‘‘(2) possesses national certification in mental
health or in a related specialty granted by an inde-
pendent professional organization;
‘‘(3) holds a minimum of a master’s degree in
school counseling from a program accredited by the
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related
Educational Programs or the equivalent;
‘‘(4) possesses a minimum of 60 graduate se-
mester hours in school psychology from an institu-
tion of higher education and has completed 1,200
clock hours in a supervised school psychology intern-
ship, of which 600 hours shall be in the school set-
ting, and possesses State licensure or certification in
school psychology in the State in which the indi-
vidual works; or
‘‘(5) holds a master’s degree in social work and
is licensed or certified by the State in which services
are to be provided or holds a school social work spe-
cialist credential.
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this part
$2,800,000,000 for fiscal year 2002, $3,000,000,000 for
fiscal year 2003, $3,200,000,000 for fiscal year 2004, and
$3,500,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and each fiscal year
thereafter.’’.
Æ