Governor Tony Evers declared 2025
the Year of the Kid and his two-year
budget called for more than $300
million in direct spending on
school mental health treatment and
staffing.
Last night, the Joint Finance
Committee approved $20 million
in one-time funding to expand
K-12 mental health programs.
Meanwhile, a bill in the legislature
calls for a two- year pilot
program in two schools Wisconsin
providing wrap-around
school-centered mental health
services.
Even through the summer break.
Senate author of the bill,
Republican Senator Jesse James of
Thorpe, joins us with more and
thanks a lot for being here.
Thank you for having me this
morning.
Sure, so just on the process
of it, provisions and
funding of your bill would be tucked
into the budget under the
Department of Health Services?
That is correct.
And is it in there at this point?
The funding is going
to be funded through a budget motion
that has been submitted.
So you've said that
advocacy for youth mental health
is your number one priority.
Why the urgency on that?
So it comes from
my personal life, it comes from my
outside career of this building
as a law enforcement officer,
as well as what I've
seen with and heard from
constituents from
my district and from across
the state.
The impacts that we've
seen in our mental health,
behavioral health crises that
our youth have been experiencing
across our state.
Have been on the rise
and I've
dealt personally more with more
youth in crisis than
I have adults in my law enforcement
capacity in the last five years
where I work as a part-time police
officer in the village of Cadot.
So that raised some
concerns for me and you
know our state
does okay when it comes
to these crises
whether it's adult or
youth but
Trying to get our youth the
services, resources,
education, prevention, coping
strategies, everything that they
need as a youth that they
can mature and grow into into
the young adult life will
set them up for success in the
future as they continue to
reside in our state.
So the school-centered pilot
program proposed would provide
wrap-around mental health services
in two schools.
What would that look like?
So in two, one would be
a urban semi-urban
school and the other one would a
rural school.
You know, the things that happen up
in the village of Cadot happen in
the city of Milwaukee.
And I think the key
element to this is the data
collecting.
There will be a report that will
be, have
to be submitted from whoever
were to receive the grant
funding for this.
And they have to provide a
report back. And that's some of the
issues that we have in our state is
the lack of information sharing.
We, the schools do a good job
tracking it, but at the state level,
none of that information is shared.
So we would have to personally go
to each of our school districts to
find out what's
going on with mental health,
how many students are impacted
by it, whether it's elementary,
middle school, high school, And
Without that data, it's very hard
for us as a legislature to make
decisions moving forward.
We can just say, yeah, there's a
problem, but we just throw money at
it with no data reporting or
collecting.
That's a foolish decision, in my
opinion.
And so what would those wraparound
services look like?
Well, it's huge and the key
element to this is that the parents
are involved in and
then also the community buy in
is there as well with the
partnerships and collaboration.
But the wraparound.
It's a year long process.
It is not just during the school
year where when the children
are in crisis, they're
receiving the services and resources
available to them.
This is a yearlong process
that even continues on through the
summertime to where
those continued
treatment options are available
to the youth and the family.
So I understand that an agency like
Lutheran Social Services could
hold the contract to provide
the program and there are estimates
there that it would cost about
$850,000 over two
years. In the end
of those two years, if this proves
super successful,
how could it be paid for in
more schools than two across
the state?
Well, that's the good question.
I think we're still waiting to see
what's happening at the federal
level with all the decisions being
made there.
This is our attempt
at the state level
to implement something
so that we can see the figures,
we can get the data.
Once we get that kind of reporting
done and we as a legislature
in the stakeholders' interest
in this topic,
this issue.
We can bring forth
further decisions, further
funding, further
modifications
that would need to be taken place.
I mean, this is gonna be a continued
work in progress.
Is there some concern on
the part of lawmakers that
just a lot of money is thrown at
mental health programs, again,
without the return of the
evidence-based success?
Is that kind of what's partly
driving the idea here?
100%. Um, so last
session, um, I've
had superintendents in my office
during budget talks this
spring and summer here
to where, um last
session they just funneled out a
whole bunch of dollars to our school
districts.
Um, one school district received
$4,000.
That's not going to pay for staff.
That' not gonna, um
you know, get
what that school district may need
to provide mental health services
to their students.
Now, I did share options with
them, but for example,
that school districts, they had a
guest speaker come in and talk to
the students.
We can do better and with that
funding, they didn't have to
report back on what they use that
money for.
And that was every school district
in our state.
There's something wrong with that.
We need to know how our
dollars are being spent, the impact
that it's having in our schools,
especially when it comes to our
youth.
And that's how we're gonna learn and
hey, what's successful working in
this school?
Can we look at other schools
that have done the same thing and
how many schools are doing that?
Get the data on how it's
improved the children's
grades, improve their
communication skills, improve their
coping strategies.
All this stuff is important data
that we need as we further
advance into the future
on how we're gonna help
provide the best school
environment.
For our children so that they
can feel comfortable at school when
it comes to the mental health
crises.
I think we're taking some huge
steps. A lot of school districts
across our nation now are banning
cell phones in schools.
That's a huge contributing factor to
students' mental health.
And I would have discussions with
anybody on this.
And even the students say that as
well. Because when I talk to the
students in the schools, I ask them
about it.
Of course, they don't want to see
the cell phones removed.
But we can do modifications
and stuff where there's certain
times, like my daughter's school,
there are certain times where they
had access to their phone.
I'm okay with that.
So there's things that we can, it's
all about communication,
negotiation, and compromise.
So speaking of that, does this pilot
have the support of legislative
leaders and the governor?
Um, well, the
funding element is always the issue
of the session. That's the, that's
the number one thing because it's
like, well the money's not in there,
how are we going to fund it?
Um, this, this is the,
the political gamesmanship that's
played in Madison.
Um, you know, we'll, we will
get the bill to the
floor.
The money would be appropriated.
I mean, if it, if a passes our
Senate and it passes our assembly.
The JFC,
I wholeheartedly
feel that the funding would be
put into the budget to
cover this.
Was the figure that I
put out there, the $850,000
over two years for two schools the
right fiscal note?
Yeah, it was.
Yes, that's correct.
All right, all right, well we leave
it there. Senator Jesse James, thank
you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
Have a great day.
Marissa, I have some ideas on what
to do with that.