Spokane Public Radio’s Doug Nadvornick wrote about the new bill #SB 5710 being evaluated by Washington legislators this week.
The bill states that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction would operate the program. OSPI would either contract with a nonprofit organization or directly provide funding to educational service districts on an ongoing basis to provide students attending school in rural areas with access to a mental health professional using telemedicine, with priority given to areas where mental health services are inadequate or nonexistent and hiring an in-person mental health professional is infeasible due to geography.
“I would say that telehealth is not the answer for all things rural, especially for individual families. Broadband access is still a huge problem in our state. But school districts have good internet and so this is a solution that works really well for schools.”
Janessa Graves, Associate Professor, WSU College of Nursing
The bill states that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction would operate the program. OSPI would either contract with a nonprofit organization or directly provide funding to educational service districts on an ongoing basis to provide students attending school in rural areas with access to a mental health professional using telemedicine, with priority given to areas where mental health services are inadequate or nonexistent and hiring an in-person mental health professional is infeasible due to geography.
