Stutts: Parents need to be involved in decision-making
Local school boards are making changes to their policies to reflect the updated Children and Youth Health Act, which went into effect Oct. 1.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, changed the age at which a minor can consent to medical services, including mental health services from 14 years old to 16 years old.
The act also prohibits “health care providers and governmental entities from denying a parent access to his or her minor child’s health information.”
Mental health services provided through inschool guidance counseling are also subject to the change, and students 16 and under cannot receive such services “unless specific written instruction has been granted by the student’s parent.”
“The parents need to be involved in the decisionmaking process,” Stutts said. “Alabama had the lowest age of medical consent in the entire country at 14 years old.
“I favored 18 instead of 16 — and we may go back and amend it … but the bottom line is children are the parents’ responsibility.”
Stutts said there was no specific incident related to him to advocating for the change. However, he said in his decades as a medial practitioner, he always involved parents when minors were in his care.
He found it alarming in some cases, young teenagers were consenting to care without their parents, and their parents were unable to even learn why.
“I’ve heard multiple stories about children who were referred for counseling at 14 or 15, and their parents couldn’t even find out why … because records couldn’t be shared with them,” Stutts said. “If you look at success rates for those services, if you don’t have support at home, the chance of success is much less.
“Parents need to be involved.”
Stutts also noted 14-year-olds are not allowed to vote, drive, consume alcohol or smoke cigarettes.
As such, they also should not be able to make medical decisions with the potential to alter them permanently, medically or otherwise, he said.
“Their brains aren’t mature and they lack judgement,” he said. “There was nothing we allow 14-year-olds to make independent decisions on except their medical care.
“I thought that needed to change.”
Tuscumbia City Schools Superintendent Russ Tate on Monday informed his school board for the reason behind the change being on their meeting agenda.
He shared the change specifically applies to “strategic mental health counseling and things of that nature,” explaining it does not affect a counselor’s ability to speak with students about grades and academic performance.
Colbert County Schools board members approved the changes to their policy last week, and Sheffield and Muscle Shoals City School districts have already changed their policies to be compliant with the law.
Sheffield Superintendent Carlos Nelson said the law serves to further emphasize the importance of communication between school officials and parents.
“What we don’t want to have is for a student not to receive services he or she may need that we can provide,” he said. “We try to be open with parents anyway, so this just emphasizes more open communication.”
Muscle Shoals Superintendent Chad Holden agreed, claiming the law “strengthens the parent-school partnership that already exists.”
“I have a child under 16, and I would want to give expressed permission for him to receive mental health or ongoing counseling services that goes beyond the regular work that school counselors do, such as whole group activities or occasional check-ins on students,” Holden said.
Stutts and school officials noted exceptions to the law do exist. For example, if a student has become emancipated, abuse or neglect are suspected or there is “an immediate necessity for immediate grief counseling,” meaning the schools would be permitted to provide services in certain circumstances.
