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DeSantis signs bill on student mental health and approves $100 million for cancer research
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several bills into law this week, including a measure that will require school districts to inform parents of additional mental-health resources if students are receiving services.
DeSantis also announced that he will approve $100 million in the upcoming year’s state budget for cancer research, $37 million more than in the current year.
DeSantis has not formally received the proposed $112.1 billion budget from the Legislature for the fiscal year that will start July 1. But in election year appearances across the state, he has dribbled out news on about $2 billion worth of projects and programs that he will approve.
A day earlier, he declared $125 million for nursing programs safe from his veto pen.
The mental health bill (HB 899), which passed during the legislative session that ended in March, would require that parents of students receiving such services be informed of “other behavioral health services available through the student's school or local community-based” providers.
Schools could meet the requirement by providing internet addresses for web-based directories or guides for local behavioral-health services. The bill also would require that people living in households with students receiving such services be informed of similar resources “if such services appear to be needed or enhancements in those individuals' behavioral health would contribute to the improved well-being of the student.”
