Occupational Therapists work with children with IEP's but interact with many students on a day to day basis in school systems and act as client-centered health practitioners by providing children a wide variety of services. Despite this, with this bill we would only be able to offer our services to children with pre-existing IEP's. With the implementation of this bill if a student is at risk for or has attempted suicide then they should receive OT treatment as well as the other services listed in the bill. As it is written in this bill currently OT health practitioners would only be considered part of the group that would receive education about what to do. According to the CDC this past June, 1 in 6 children between the ages of 2-8 has a mental or behavioral health disorder, and Of the 74.5 million children in the United States, an estimated 17.1 million have or have had a mental health disorder such as depression

The student Suicide Prevention Act (Bill A09032) is an amendment to the Education Act that requires local schools (public and private) to have a plan of action for when a child tries to or successfully commits suicide in their district. This bill mandates that school faculty and staff will be required to be educated on how to spot a child with suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms. This bill is important in furthering schools' education on mental health in children and its overall goal is to decrease suicide rates in NYS. Unfortunately, this bill has very little media coverage and only has 40 sponsors out of the 150 in New York State. More attention is needed for this bill to succeed. Please help by signing this petition to further include OT services in this bill.

References:

New York assembly bill A09032. (2020, February 20). Legiscan. https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/A09032/2019