📢NEW AZ Auditor General Report: Schools are spending LESS on instruction, MORE on counselors - LOWEST IN 23 YEARS!!
Since the auditor started tracking Instructional Spending in 2001, last year schools allocated the least amount of spending to actual instruction...
🧵1/7 But schools did allocate MORE money on "student support services" i.e., counselors.
2X the amount, adjusted for inflation, since 2001.
➡️Average school spends over $1,100 on "support" services like counselors
2/7

🚨Urgent Care-meets-the-Classroom | Are you here to see the health pro...or a teacher?
AZ republican proposes comprehensive bill to restructure schools into hybrid, one-stop learning-health-clinic model, forever transforming concept of schools as academic centers. HB2448 bill invites privately-owned, health centers into schools that would be managed by new program at Dept of Ed.
🧵⬇️
1/n HB2448:
➡️Outside health care provider may set up on-site
➡️For services "beyond" scope of nursing
➡️Parental consent required if "consistent with federal laws"
➡️May bill private insurance, but will serve all regardless of ability to pay
2/n

🚨PETITION FILED WITH ARIZONA BOARD OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH TO REPEAL UNLAWFUL "NO-TOUCH" POLICY EXEMPTING SCHOOL COUNSELORS FROM REGULATORY OVERSIGHT🚨
Today, as a concerned parent and proponent of transparency, I filed an ARS 41-1003 administrative petition with the Board of Behavioral Health Examiners to repeal their 21-year old "no-touch" policy that purports to exempt school counselors from BBHE's regulatory oversight. This Policy violates the Administrative Procedures Act, is redundant, and no longer reflects the reality of mental health services in schools.

For too long the BBHE has turned a blind eye to the practice of behavioral health by unlicensed school counselors and social workers.

Much has changed in school counseling since 2003 when the Policy was adopted. They aren't just "guidance counselors" for career and college advising anymore. They provide behavioral health services and the Department of Education, however well-intentioned, is ill-equipped to manage and supervise them.

In the interest of public health, welfare and safety, the BBHE needs to reassert their statutory authority over the practice of behavioral health.

Parents need to know that if their rights are violated, or if their child is injured, by an unlicensed school counselor or social worker practicing behavioral health, they have recourse to the regulators at the BBHE who have statutory powers to investigate complaints and tackle the unauthorized practice of behavioral health - a Class VI felony in this state.

Parents whose rights are violated, or whose children are injured by unlicensed behavioral health workers in schools should not have to rely on a school district's complaint policies and procedures set in place by district administrators, governing boards, or the Department of Education.

Parents, lawmakers, and regulators need to understand:

➡️There is no statutory basis to exclude school counselors and social workers practicing behavioral health from licensure

➡️The BBHE adopted this Policy in 2003 without any statutory basis to create an exemption from licensure

➡️The Policy is used as a blanket exclusionary rule - but never went through formal rulemaking proceedings - no public notice, no public comment, no public scrutiny

➡️Whatever assumptions the BBHE had about school counselors not practicing behavioral health in 2003, those assumptions are no longer warranted

➡️Being "certified" by the Department of Education does not make school counselors or school social workers any different from any other "certified" employee in schools:
*They follow district policies, not professional practice standards
*They report to administrators, not licensed supervisors with experience in behavioral health, and
* They are not bound by the same professional ethics of a licensed practitioner.

A copy of the full 102-page Petition is available here:
drive.proton.me/urls/4WH7S41Z5…
Part II of the Petition on the evolving role of school counselors and behavioral health in schools:
➡️Did you know ADE changed the title of "guidance counselors" to "school counselors" only in 2018?
➡️Or that an ASU counseling master's degree requires you study the same courses - whether you're "certified" or "licensed"? It really doesn't matter - the courses qualify you for both

📢AZ BoE | Enforcement Actions - September 2023
Astonishing trend continues.
Teacher certificates voluntarily surrendered include:
➡️7 out of 16 cases involving sexual interest in minors
➡️That's 44% of all cases for the month, up from 41% last month

Highlights in the 🧵⬇️
1/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1694367720580764105

/2/ Agua Fria Union HS:
➡️District discovers allegations of molestation of a 13 yo step-daughter over a two year period

📢Public Schools | Unregulated Mental Health Service Providers (dba "certified counselors/social workers"):
@azedschools publishes new guidance, with state medicaid agency, to expand presence of licensed mental health providers in AZ schools, transforming our understanding of schools as primarily academic-focused institutions into a hybrid school/mental health clinic model euphemistically called "community schools." Here's what you need to know.⬇️

Source here:

Some good, some bad, so here's MY reader's guide to the guidance:

1/ "Community" Framework. Transforming schools from primarily academic centers into "community schools" with one-stop academic, physical and mental health services, the guidance purports to provide a framework to enter partnerships with licensed mental health professionals (referred to as "community providers") to take school service referrals. The framework includes:

➡️Delineation of roles between ADE-certified social workers/counselors/psychologists, and board-licensed professional mental health providers.

>By this metric, the guidance fails to adequately distinguish the scope of practice between the two. As I've repeatedly written, "certified" mental health providers in schools are not subject to the same professional standards of care regulated by the board of licensing, nor are they subject to discipline by a professional board.

>The failure to clearly delineate roles can be attributed to the guidance's reliance primarily on the advocacy positions of the American School Counselors Association. ASCA is not a professional licensing board, they are a volunteer association with no enforcement or disciplinary power over members.

>The "certified" vs "licensed" distinction is not even mentioned in the guidance. The authors apparently do not want to highlight the difference - and I think that's purposeful to obscure the increasing "professional creep" of unlicensed workers into areas of mental health practice that 📢IN ANY OTHER CONTEXT OTHER THAN SCHOOLS - would require licensing from the board.

>The authors stay in the "gray zone" where ADE-certified workers gradually assume greater roles in the provision of mental heath that ordinarily requires licensing and oversight by the state board.⬇️
You can see this "professional creep" in this graphic, taken from ASCA research, with my redlined addition. Where on this continuum should a child be referred to a licensed mental health provider? At what point does a school employee call the parent and refer out? The guidance does not say:
Likewise, note closely how many times and in what priority "family" is mentioned on the right, "community" (i.e., board licensed)-side of the "Whole School" pyramid model. Now look on the ADE-certified side where "family" is at the bottom. What does this even mean? Does the relative priority reflect the fact that, by law, board licensed mental health providers must obtain prior, informed consent from parents of a minor before treatment - but an ADE-certified school counselor can just stop a kid in the hall and say, "let's talk during your lunch period?"
(To be continued...)






Part II⬇️

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1698719703865381332?s=20

📢AZ BoE | Enforcement Actions:
Board resumes disciplines amid wave of teacher misconduct.
Whopping🚨 41% 🚨of voluntary surrender cases involve sexual interest in minors:
➡️23 voluntary surrenders
➡️4 revocations
➡️5 negotiated settlements
➡️12 revocations in pipeline
🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1673347336859435009

1/ Teacher in Sunnyside USD found to be on 12-year probation for RAPE of a minor girl

Part II. Public Schools | Counselors, Social Workers |
"Certified" vs "Licensed" (cont):
In 2019 the Board of Behavioral Health (BBH) took 91 enforcement actions to discipline LICENSED social workers/counselors.
Against "certified" ones working at schools?
>>ZERO<<
1/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1659697823775088641

Licensed social workers/counselors must abide by professional standards of conduct promulgated and enforced by the BBH.
Compliance must be documented:
➡️Written Informed Consent
➡️Written Treatment Plan
>>BOTH signed by a parent if patient is a minor<<
2/n

1/ Yesterday I made a small thread on the AZ Center for Civic Leadership's coming seminar promoting the work of a Teen Mental Health "Committee" that uses false data on child suicides to justify anti-parental right social policies in schools. It's suspicious, so looked into it.

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1669550336355471361

2/ Those policies include, among others:
- a secret app for schools and children to hide mental health issues from parents
- more funding for unlicensed mental health workers

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1669480236692680705?s=20

📢@AZCivicLeads issues report on teen mental health - using a false premise - to call for:
➡️increased spending for school counselors
➡️secret app for kids to hide mental health needs from parents
Let's take a look🧵
1/n @AZCivicLeads' "Teen Mental Health Ad Hoc Committee" advances, without evidence, the falsehood that suicide is "leading cause of death" for children in AZ.

Reality:

**Suicide is only 5% of child deaths in AZ**

🚨America First Legal sues Fontes for unlawful denial of public records requests. Seeks emails of Hobbes and 3 associates over 8 days when Maricopa County "still counting" votes
1/5

https://twitter.com/America1stLegal/status/1656298619488677889

Fontes denied the records after 10-week delay as too "burdensome" to produce 8 days of emails between Hobbes and 3 associates; involves "thousands of emails"
((3 people, over an 8-day period, emails only))
2/5

2021 Child Fatality Data | AZ: Guns, COVID, and Neglect
The real data on kids and guns, what it means to die from COVID...and the leading cause of death for children in AZ. It's not what they'd have you believe.🧵⬇️
1/n While DHS stopped publishing annual reports, the Child Fatality Review Team - a separate data analysis entity est'd by statute (ARS 36-3501) - continues to publish data on child mortality. All of it immensely sad, but some of it very...curious.
2/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1646635115962056705?s=20

📢Goldwater report: Now more than 51,000 students using ESAs.

And this here is what public schools-no-matter-the-cost adherents detest: for the cost of 1 public school pupil, the state now supports 2 via ESAs.

https://twitter.com/MBeienburg/status/1648103048991109120

How bad must your product be - when consumers would rather pay out of pocket for an alternative when they could get YOURS for free?

When those same consumers petition your investors to stop giving you more financing?

📢Public Schools | Opposite Sex Bathroom Access & Title IX - They Are Lying
If school district says Title IX "mandates" opposite sex access to bathrooms, you are being gaslit.
That's not the law.
It's made-up, pretend law by cultural insurrectionists.
Here's the deal. 🧵⬇️
1/n Bostock decision comes out in 2020 holding that an employer cannot terminate a man that identifies as a woman if the employer would not terminate a woman identifying as a woman and who was similarly situated.

🚨@ADFLegal and @ACU_AZ file federal civil rights lawsuit v WA school district - and board members individually - related to unlawful termination of service agreement, violating:
➡️religious exercise
➡️free speech
➡️gov't religious discrimination in contracting
1/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1631721277932322816

Religious Animosity | Gov't Contracting
US Sup Ct: Gov't cannot
➡️impose regulations hostile to religion
➡️pass judgment or presuppose "illegitimacy" of religious beliefs and practices
➡️exclude religious person from public benefits

But WESD, and board members, did anyway
2/n

Austin TX | Random Thoughts:
Visited the UT Austin campus last week, first time to the city. Expected a small town, very pleasantly surprised.
Austin has personality. Not sexy, not chic; too hipster for that. There's a certain swagger with the twang. And it's cool.
1/n Most of my adult life has been in urban centers. Tokyo, Seattle. Almost 6 years in AZ and still not quite comfortable. No urban core. No unique vibe.
But walking downtown felt right, smooth and familiar. The right fit. Like a good pair of boots.
2/n

📢SUSD Menzel - in letter to staff:
➡️Fox made "pretty extreme claims about me"
➡️Not giving the full "context"
➡️Used "selective quotes"

How much context needed to understand his views? From public records of his prior employer, a 🧵🔽

@JosephChaplik
@alex4arizona
1/15

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1620907662706876416

SUSD Superintendent Menzel | In His Own Words:

Reflections on Charlottesville

"White people of European descent are NOT natives to this land. Our nation was founded on genocide and displacement of the indigenous population,..."

2/15

🚨Lawmakers demand the resignation or termination of @ScottsdaleUSD's Menzel over race essentialist views:

"Menzel's racist views not only compromise his ability to lead, but he has made himself the center of a controversial spotlight that will only distract from learning."
1/n

https://twitter.com/AZHouseGOP/status/1620902036081618944

AZ lawmakers to SUSD governing board:

"And if Menzel does not have the decency to resign, we are calling on the SUSD board to terminate his employment with cause for the district."
2/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1618922612826185732?s=20&t=E7G2f-YF2sKYHPIAfY-vVw

📢UPDATE in AG v SUSD and JM Greenburg in Mask Mandate case:

Both SUSD and JMG, after losing MTD, have filed answers denying Open Meeting Law violations and asserting defenses.

JMG appears to be laying blame on the SUSD superintendent...
1/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1604142282608738305

JMG:
➡️Superintendent "exclusive authority" to prepare agenda for meetings in question
➡️JMG just followed Superintendent's direction
2/n

Peoria Unified School District Governing Board Asked To Approve CRT Based Training – Arizona Daily Independent arizonadailyindependent.com/2023/01/08/peo… @ThePeoriaMom

https://twitter.com/alegalprocess/status/1444684011821879302?s=46&t=R0aDy-HvX0zTGYO9Dg8hBQ

🚨Seattle Schools sue social media giants as "public nuisance" and wants $ for mental health services
➡️Says youths' "developing brains" susceptible to influence
➡️Inadvertently makes case to stop sexualization and race essentialism programing
[Notes from a contrarian]
1/n Seattle SD v social media
➡️design products for profit that harm youth
➡️youth central to business model
➡️youth particularly susceptible to manipulative conduct
➡️creating a mental health crisis
2/n

📢Schools | Transgender | Sports
New fed case: ACLU and biological male challenge state's "Save Women's Sports" law - and FAILS.
Court:
➡️Biological sex is reality
➡️Sex and gender not same
➡️No Equal Protection or Title IX violation to use biology to segregate sports teams
1/n

https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1611364318272184320

Schools | Transgender | Sports
➡️ACLU reps 11-yo transgender boy, and "her next friend" - apparently a reference to "mother"
➡️Expressed at girl from age 3
➡️The "next friend and mother" put child on blockers at first sign of puberty
➡️Never had endogenous male puberty
2/n