School Health Clinics Raise Questions

Epoch Times interviews EFA President Sloan Rachmuth for its expose on school Medicaid clinics.

by: STAFF

Last week, Epoch Times' Matt McGreggor published an exhaustive look into the policies and practices of school-based clinics titled: IN-DEPTH: School-Based Health Centers Further Ostracize Parents From Children's Medical Treatment

Story highlights:

• The age of consent is being lowered, and minors can receive medical care without their parent's knowledge. States like Washington and California have passed laws allowing children to hide medical procedures from their parents.

To Know: Children as young as 2 years old can legally consent to psychiatric treatment in North Carolina. The Parents' Bill of Rights requires parents to be notified if their child is being screened, monitored, or treated for mental health conditions in schools.

• School health clinics act as family clinics for children, providing health screenings, psychological treatments, as well as reproductive counseling.

• A father in Maine reported that a school health clinic sent his daughter home with a small bag of Zoloft without his consent. Child protective services investigated his home based on an unfounded complaint. In-school treatments can lead to parents' being investigated for contributing to childhood depression.

To Know: In 2019, North Carolina expanded Medicaid school-based services to include primary care and psychiatric services. The state allows schools to bill Medicaid directly for children's health care, making every school a billing center.

• In June 2023, the U.S. Department of Education proposed sidestepping parental consent for Medicaid treatments. This could jeopardize the health care plans that the parent is privately managing. For example, if a child needs an expensive medical procedure, the parent may opt out of Medicaid and pay for the treatment out-of-pocket rather than risk the possibility that their child's information would be shared with the federal government without their knowledge.

• Sloan Rachmuth: While expanded school clinics seem like a major convenience for parents, there may be another agenda on a national scale. The time has come for parents to pay attention to schools putting health centers in and making sure that consent is the forefront of their child's school clinic.

NC RADICALIZED SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

This year, North Carolina's Department of Education (DPI) won $17 million in Federal grant funding to increase psychiatric services in 15 districts.

School social workers are trained to deliver mental health services and are licensed by the DPI.

Some school districts hire social workers directly, but a cursory search of Indeed's job search site reveals that many districts rely on contract employees for services.

Some young people could benefit greatly from counseling services provided by school social workers. However, the social work profession in North Carolina is infusing the concept of "systemic racism" and "white supremacy" into the treatment of children in schools.

The divisive racial ideology that has plagued American politics for the past decade has infiltrated and poisoned the school social work profession.

For proof, let’s turn to the North Carolina NASW chapter website. In bold callouts on its homepage, NASW offers critical race theory (CRT) resources to use with students, as well as tools for social workers to promote abortion with their “clients.”

Clinicians expecting to find resources to help students improve their coping skills, reduce anxiety, or boost academic performance are in for a rude awakening. Those resources don’t appear on the NASW website.

According to the North Carolina chapter of the National Association of Social Work (NC-NASW), the single most important fact about any student is their racial and gender identity. There is a 180-degree difference between this dogma and proven therapies, which assume people are capable of changing their thoughts and behavior.

North Carolina's Society of School Psychologists (NCSPA) appears at least as radical as the social workers. During the 2022 yearly conference, NCSPA offered a session on applying Critical Race Theory (CRT) to practice - advising counselors to see “whiteness as property,” and to take a “social justice” approach to level playing fields.

Flooding schools with Medicaid-sponsored health workers who are required to pursue Marxist goals is a risky bet. Neglecting real mental disorders that underlie depression, substance abuse, and suicide while focusing on indoctrination has grave consequences that will worsen the youth mental health crisis.