Patrick Kennedy: “I want to commend both sides for working out a good bill that passed unanimously from the committee. I want to commend…”

“I want to commend both sides for working out a good bill that passed unanimously from the committee. I want to commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns), my good friend and colleague, and his office for working very closely with all of us in trying to ensure that we were able to address the needs of families and children in school. When I travel around my district in Rhode Island, I find school teachers telling me that the biggest single problem they have is addressing the emotional and social development of the kids in their classrooms. These kids come to school often from broken families, family violence, situations that none of us can even begin to imagine, and to think that these children are going to learn and not be able to shut out these things from their mind about what is going on at home is just not being realistic. These kids need assistance, they need help, and they need counseling. That is why I think we have done so well by trying to ensure that there are more school counselors, but we still need to do more. In terms of the mental health part, I think this is an important part of development. I think this bill does a lot to ensure that we do not tie the hands of teachers and principals and administrators insofar as their consulting with parents.”