STOP S3156 Dangerous in School Healthcare. The devil is in the details.
Social and Emotional Learning, often referred to as SEL, has changed over time. Originally, the goal of SEL was to promote morally neutral soft skills such as self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and goal-setting.
In 2020, everything changed with the shift to “Transformative SEL".
Senate Bill 3156 is SEL on steroids. And it's being voted on in the New Jersey Senate on Monday.
S3156 "Permits Boards of Education to lease certain school property to federally qualified health centers without bidding." In other words, "health centers" prequalified by the Biden administration will be given space on school property to push SEL, and -- without bidding -- there will be no questions asked, NOT EVEN ABOUT THE IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS.
No-bid contracts are a license for favoritism and political corruption.
S3156 is sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal, the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He knows his bill is bad. He knows his bill is controversial. That's why he fast-tracked S3156 out of committee while it was still in draft form and unfinished. He didn't want the public to know about it or members of his committee to know what they were voting on.
SEL "health" centers on school property will make schools a one-stop shop without parental input. Mental and emotional health services will be provided for children without their parent's consent.
What makes S3156 even more of a threat is that another piece of legislation moving through the legislature is S1188 which will lower the age of consent for behavioral services from 16 to 14. On school grounds, possibly in the very school that your child attends there will be a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). A primary service of an FQHC is mental and behavioral services, which will be located on middle or high school property and will not require parental consent to administer services to any child.
This bill (S3156) is too broad, with too many unanswered questions because of the way it was pushed through his committee.
This bill does not address the relationship between the clinic and the school. Nor does it address the safety issues regarding individuals from the wider public coming into a "health center" located in the same building as the children. This hastily conceived legislation is full of dangers to our children. Act now and tell your legislators to Vote no on S3156/A4381!