Pubdate: Fri, 25 Sep 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
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Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Joshua Miller

BILL CALLS FOR STUDENT SCREENINGS IN SCHOOLS TO CURB DRUG ABUSE

The state Senate is expected to vote next week on a bill that would 
require all public school districts in Massachusetts to screen 
seventh and 10th graders for potential drug use, with an eye toward 
stemming the scourge of opioid abuse at an early stage.

The screenings would not involve drug tests. Rather, the screener - 
who could be a school nurse or psychologist trained in speaking to 
kids about drug use - would determine through a conversation if the 
student was engaged in risky behavior, according to a Senate briefing 
for reporters on the proposal.

The intent is to identify students who need help "and to try to move 
them in a way that they will want to go into treatment. You can't 
force them," said Senator Jennifer L. Flanagan, Democrat of 
Leominster, the main backer of the provision.

Students or parents would be able to opt out of the screening. 
Parents wouldn't be immediately notified of the screening results, 
and the bill would work to protect students' privacy, Flanagan said. 
Parents would be notified only in the most extreme cases of 
dependence or addiction, according to a Flanagan aide.

Updated wording of the bill, which will be subject to amendment, was 
not publicly available Thursday and was still being scrutinized by 
Senate's legal office. The final version senators vote on could look 
very different.

Flanagan said a lot of young people have said to her and her 
colleagues: "If someone had asked, if someone had known, if I had a 
chance to say, 'I needed help,' " it might have diverted them from 
the path of addiction.

The senator did not make clear under which circumstances the 
screeners would be compelled to notify authorities about children 
they screened.

The program, referred to as SBIRT - Screening, Brief Intervention, 
and Referral to Treatment - is currently used in 10 Massachusetts 
public schools, Flanagan said.

Hadley Public Schools began a pilot program last year, training its 
nurses and counselors in the screening methods and applying them to 
10th-grade students, said Renee Denenfeld, nurse leader for the 
school district. This year the program expanded to include 
seventh-graders as well as 10th-graders.

Denenfeld said the program had been embraced by the community. The 
Hadley School Department sent letters to parents detailing the 
questions their children would be asked and instructing them on how 
to opt out of the screening, but no families chose to exclude their 
children, she said.

"It gave students an opportunity to ask the nurses questions . . . 
and let them know that we not only take care of physical complaints, 
but we are there for their emotional and their mental health as 
well," Denenfeld said. "I think it's an important piece of health screening."

Flanagan said there would be state funding for schools to train 
screeners, but did not specify the cost associated with the program.

Senators and aides did not know whether other states had adopted 
similar screening mandates for schools.

Massachusetts Teachers Association president Barbara Madeloni said in 
a statement that the increase in the use of opioids is a huge concern.

"Schools can play an important role in making sure students have 
access to treatment and counseling, but it has to be done right," she 
said. "We're very interested in learning more about the specifics of 
this bill."

The bill is set to include several other provisions aimed at 
prevention, according to Senator John F. Keenan, a Democrat from Quincy.

They include mandating doctors who prescribe certain 
extended-release, long-acting opioids document justification for why 
they are doing so; requiring insurance companies to provide doctors 
and the public information about pain-management alternatives to 
opioids; and allowing people to voluntarily put themselves on a 
do-not-prescribe list for opioids, with exceptions for emergencies.

An earlier version of the bill that included a screening provision 
appeared to garner concern from two key players in moving any 
legislation forward into law: Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Governor 
Charlie Baker.

Responding to a general question about drug screenings at middle 
schools and high schools, DeLeo, a Democrat, indicated that the 
Legislature would have to look at potential constitutional concerns 
vis-a-vis students' rights.

Baker, a Republican, said that when it comes to dealing with the 
opioid crisis, he's willing to listen to almost anything people come 
up with. But as for required screenings, Baker said at a Politico 
event, he does not "really like that idea very much."

Aides said the Senate is poised to vote on the legislation, backed by 
Senate president Stanley C. Rosenberg, on Oct. 1.

Beacon Hill leaders have made addressing the opioid abuse crisis a priority.

In a statement, Baker spokeswoman Elizabeth Guyton said that the 
governor "appreciates efforts by the Legislature to put forth 
meaningful proposals aimed to reduce opioid abuse."

Guyton said Baker will file legislation in the coming weeks based on 
recommendations from his Opioid Working Group, a panel of specialists 
who released proposals to address the scourge earlier this year.

Among the recommendations of that group was increasing the use of 
screenings in schools to identify youths who are at risk "for 
behavioral health issues," but there was no mention of a mandate on 
all school districts.

The governor has already filed a bill, pending in the Legislature, 
that would boost spending on drug abuse treatment and prevention by 
$28 million.

Massachusetts has recently seen a startling uptick in unintentional 
opioid overdose deaths. The state Department of Public Health said 
during the summer that an estimated 1,256 Massachusetts residents 
died from opioid overdoses in 2014, a sharp increase from 2013 and 2012.

Jeremy C. Fox of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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