Top Texas House Republican floats mental health-focused response to Uvalde

With a special session of the Legislature unlikely to be called soon, the Republican leader of the Texas House is proposing several school safety priorities that he believes can be achieved before classes resume in August.

House Speaker Dade Phelan's list focused primarily on the Republican priority of addressing mental health issues — but included nothing about access to firearms — in the wake of the May 24 shooting that left 21 dead in two Uvalde fourth grade classrooms.

In a Monday letter seeking support for his proposals from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Phelan said he focused on priorities that can be achieved by redirecting state money without the need for new laws and without reducing funding for any school district.

As a potential sweetener, Phelan also endorsed Patrick's proposal to spend $50 million on bulletproof shields for public school campuses — upgrading his initially lukewarm response to Patrick's request.

"Like you, I believe our respective chambers have the obligation to take immediate, concrete action with the goal of making our schools safe as possible before the start of the upcoming school year," Phelan said in a letter to Patrick, a fellow Republican who presides over the Texas Senate.

Patrick responded with his own letter Monday night, saying he agreed to most of Phelan's proposals.

Democrats have been pressing for a special session, arguing that the path to school safety relies on addressing easy access to firearms. They are proposing to raise the age to purchase assault-style rifles from 18 to 21, to require background checks before all gun purchases, and to enact "red flag" laws that let courts temporarily remove guns from somebody deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.

Democrats also have proposed limiting high-capacity magazines and requiring owners to promptly report stolen weapons.

State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, praised all of Phelan's proposals.

"I applaud the speaker for looking at how we can do better at supporting mental health," Howard said. "We have neglected that area of health care for Texans."

But the Democrat said she was disappointed that "common-sense gun reforms" were not part of the discussion.

"I wish we were also talking about actual gun reform legislation that also could have an impact before our kids go back to school in the fall," Howard said. "That would require a special session ... but I'm not going to let the perfect get in the way of the good."

Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted calls for a special session, saying a full accounting of the Uvalde shooting is needed first.

Along with other Republican leaders, Abbott has also rejected calls for limiting gun rights, saying the focus should be on beefing up school security and improving mental health responses.

Toward those goals, Phelan asked Patrick to consider eight proposals, starting with spending $30 million per year to increase mental health beds, particularly for pediatric patients, and $37.5 million to expand a school telemedicine program that seeks to identify children with behavioral health needs.

Phelan also proposed:

• Raising the number of "multisystemic therapy" teams, which treat juvenile violence, from the current seven by adding up to seven teams this year and up to 14 teams next year. Texas currently needs 140 teams, which cost $575,000 per year to operate plus $100,000 per team to start, Phelan said.

• Adding two coordinated specialty care teams, which treat youths experiencing psychosis, at $470,000 each, and setting up "pediatric crisis stabilization and response teams" to provide crisis intervention at $10.5 million per year.

• Providing active shooter response training to all law enforcement officers and cadets ($7 million) and ensuring that every school district has access to training offered by the Texas School Safety Center ($7 million).

• Providing $18.7 million, or $2,000 per campus, to buy silent panic alert systems that connect directly to law enforcement.

Phelan said the money could be shifted under the governor's and Legislative Budget Board's power to manage appropriations while the Legislature is not in session.

Patrick agreed to shift money to expand telemedicine and fund additional specialty care and multisystemic therapy teams. He also endorsed the panic alarms, active shooter response training and school safety center initiative.

The rest can be worked out in consultation with lawmakers, Patrick said, adding that the $50 million he has proposed for bulletproof shields is a down payment, with additional money to be added in the next two-year budget.

"As we move forward this will require additional funds to ensure all officers across the state will have immediate access to these shields," he wrote.

Abbott praised the proposals and thanked Phelan and Patrick for following his earlier recommendation to create special legislative committees dedicated to studying the Uvalde shooting and recommending additional action.

"This is a great start to delivering not only on the needs of the Uvalde community, but for schools and communities across Texas," he said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: After Uvalde, Dade Phelan proposes increase to mental health services