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MDE asks lawmakers to make school mental-health and meals funding recurring, roll back PD/virtual-day counting
Summary
Michigan education leaders praised recent expansions in school mental-health staffing and school meals but urged the Legislature to make specific program funding recurring and to restore in-person instructional time by rescinding provisions that count professional-development and virtual days as student instructional time.
Michigan education officials told the House Oversight Committee that targeted investments have increased school-based mental health personnel and school meal participation, but the department asked the Legislature to convert temporary grants to recurring funding and to restore more in-person student instructional time.
State Board President Pamela Pugh thanked the Legislature for recent investments in school-based mental health and safety. Rice said the state invested in children’s mental health and school safety starting in fiscal year 2019 ($31.3 million) and that the current fiscal year includes roughly a quarter-billion dollars aimed at children’s mental health and school safety.
Rice and Pugh asked the committee to: (1) make the “Section 31 double-a” children’s mental health funding recurring rather than nonrecurring; (2) codify the Michigan School Meals program to avoid future budget uncertainty; and (3) roll back changes made in 2019 and 2023 that allow up to seven professional-development days and up to 15 virtual days to count as student instructional days under the State School Aid Act. Rice described professional development as valuable but said it should not be carved from student instructional time.
Rice also noted meal participation increases after the Michigan School Meals program expansion: breakfasts were up 26% and lunches up 20% over the prior year, and he asked the Legislature to codify program funding so districts can rely on it.
Provenance: Presentation and related Q&A where the department described mental-health funding history and the school meals program (transcript blocks s=1104.735 through s=1248.2749 and s=1136.465 through s=1174.01).
