Washington, D.C. – Today, survivors and family of the South Capitol Street tragedy joined Councilmembers David Catania, Sekou Biddle, Tommy Wells, and Chairman Kwame Brown in announcing the “South Capitol Street Tragedy Memorial Act of 2011.” For the text of the bill and more information, visit www.SouthCapitolAct.com.

“The District’s legacy of failure in these areas created the conditions that made tragedy like the one that occurred a year ago possible,” said Catania. “The bill will create the most comprehensive and sophisticated youth mental health screening system in the country and will at long last ensure real enforcement of existing truancy laws”

The “South Capitol Street Tragedy Memorial Act of 2011” is intended to replace the District’s current approach to behavioral health – a patchwork of programs that reach small pockets of District youth – with an evidence-based behavioral health system that universally screens District youth and connects those who have behavioral health needs to appropriate care.

The legislation is a result of the combined efforts of Councilmember David Catania and Nardyne Jeffereies, who lost her daughter Brishell Jones in the tragedy. A year in the making, the effort came together in response to the violence on March 30^th, 2010 that took the lives of four young people: Brishell Jones, William Jones III, DeVaughn Boyd, and Tavon Nelson. The law firm Nixon Peabody LLC contributed significant research and expertise over the past year on a pro bono basis.

“These issues affect the lives of every District resident and their input on the legislation is critical to its success,” said Catania. “I invite the public to share their comments and thoughts at www.SouthCapitolAct.com.”

Unmet behavioral health needs manifest themselves in many ways, including truancy. The legislation also steps up the District’s response to truancy, which can be a gateway to juvenile crime and other high-risk behavior. This legislation seeks to meet the behavioral health needs of District youth and be more proactive in responding to truancy so that District youth can stay on the path to leading successful and productive lives.

The bill has six titles: Youth Behavioral Health Epidemiology, Early Childhood Behavioral Health Services, School-Based Behavioral Health Services, Truancy Prevention, and Behavioral Health Infrastructure. Title I requires the Department of Mental Health to conduct a comprehensive youth behavioral health epidemiology report. The report, which will provide data about the actual incidence and prevalence of behavioral health disorders among District youth, will enable the District to do something it has never done before: use research to tailor its behavioral health programming and educational standards to the actual behavioral health needs of District youth. Based on the findings of this report, existing behavioral health programs may need to be revamped and the educational standards that guide how we teach youth about behavioral health issues may need to be realigned.

The behavioral health needs of children under age 6 are often misunderstood and neglected. Title II requires staff at child development centers to receive training in identifying and responding to the behavioral health needs of young children. The bill also provides that all children in Head Start and Early Head Start are screened for developmental and behavioral health disorders and connected to appropriate resources. By ensuring that the people who interact with young children all day are trained to identify and meet these needs, the District can reverse the problem of failing to identify and appropriately respond to the behavioral health needs of our youngest children.

Title III establishes universal behavioral health screening for District students who attend public and public charter schools. The bill establishes a program to train K-8 teachers to identify students with behavioral health needs. Teachers will then be required to universally screen K-8 students for behavioral health disorders and refer students who have unmet needs to appropriate programs and services. The legislation requires the implementation of behavioral health programs at every K-8 school to address school readiness for K-3 students and complex behavioral health needs of K-8 students, as appropriate. To address high school students with behavioral health needs, the bill requires the implementation of a program that screens 9^th through 12^th graders and connects those with unmet needs to internal or external behavioral health resources. To ensure that every school has internal behavioral health resources, the legislation requires the expansion of the School Mental Health Program to all schools by the 2016-2017 school year.

Title IV requires the District to step up its response to truancy and address the administrative lapses that plague truancy enforcement. Experts agree that the most effective way to reduce truancy is to address the root cause of the truancy. This can vary from academic failure to lack of safety getting to and from school to unmet behavioral health needs. The legislation requires schools to convene a truancy conference with the student, parent, and school officials after 5 unexcused absences for the purpose of identifying and remedying the root cause of the student’s truancy.

The legislation also reduces the number of unexcused absences before a truancy case is referred to Court Social Services for possible prosecution. Currently, a student can miss 25 days of school – over one month – before being referred for possible prosecution. The legislation reduces this number to 7 days in one month or 10 total days. For students who have been referred for prosecution in the past, the number of unexcused absences before court intervention would be even lower: 4 in one month or six 6 cumulative.

Title IV also reduces the amount of time that passes before the court is notified of the truancy of one of the youth the court supervises. Currently, when youth under court supervision are truant, the court is not notified until the student has missed 25 days of school. To remedy this, the bill requires that each unexcused absence of youth under court supervision is reported to Court Social Services within 2 business days.

Finally, title IV requires schools to report data on truancy and on the interventions employed to prevent truancy. Schools have truancy protocols to address truant students, but it is not clear that schools are following those protocols. By requiring schools to report on how many students were truant for how many days and what exact prevention strategies were utilized, the Council and the Mayor will be able to determine whether the failure to curb truancy in the District is a result of using ineffective policies or the result of failing to follow policies.

Title V provides resources to families to help them identify whether their child has behavioral health issues and to connect their children to appropriate behavioral health care. It requires the Department of Mental Health to create a behavioral health tool kit and resource guide for parents and guardians. It requires the Mayor to create resource guides for families that interact with the child welfare and juvenile justice system. It requires the Office of the State Superintendent to create a truancy prevention tool kit and resource guide for parents. Finally, it enhances the 2-1-1 health and human services hotline.

Title VI improves the behavioral health infrastructure. It establishes a Behavioral Health Ombudsman to act as an advocate for District residents as they navigate behavioral health agencies and programs. The legislation requires the Mayor to improve how the Child and Family Services Agency and the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services identify and respond to youth with behavioral health issues. It also requires the Department of Health Care Finance to improve how behavioral health care is provided to children enrolled in Medicaid or other public programs. Those provisions promote continuity of care for children with behavioral health issues, streamline credentialing for public behavioral health providers, and enable children’s behavioral health providers to bill for communication necessary to provide appropriate treatment for their patients. Taken together, these improvements to the behavioral health infrastructure should improve both access to care and the quality of care provided.

The legislation will be officially introduced at the next Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, April 5^th. For more information about the act or to submit comments, visit www.SouthCapitolAct.com.