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Subcommittee backs resolution to join SREB recovery-counselor network
Summary
The Budget Review Subcommittee voted to endorse Senate Concurrent Resolution 43, which urges Kentucky to join a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) program that would expand a mutual-aid network of trained counselors for recovery after mass-tragedy events.
The Budget Review Subcommittee on Primary & Secondary Education & Workforce Development voted to advance Senate Concurrent Resolution 43 urging Kentucky to join a Southern Regional Education Board recovery-counselor network, the panel chair announced after a voice and roll-call vote.
The resolution would back a SREB initiative, supported by Sen. Steve West and described for the panel by Dr. Steven Pruitt of the Southern Regional Education Board, to expand a mutual-aid corps of trained counselors. Pruitt and West said the measure would be accompanied by a $10,000 incremental increase in Kentucky’s SREB dues to allow access to a pool of counselors that SREB proposes to train and maintain for deployment after mass-tragedy events.
Supporters said the program is designed to provide stabilization and psychological first aid after the initial emergency response concludes. “When we talk about recovery, we talk about what happens after the cameras go home,” Dr. Pruitt told the committee, describing work in Marshall County following a 2018 school shooting and the need for rotating counselor support well past the immediate aftermath. He said the SREB plan would train counselors for stabilization — not to provide ongoing therapeutic services — and make a regional roster available to states in the SREB network.
Committee members asked about parental notification and participation by pastoral counselors. Dr. Pruitt said all deployments would run through the local district and follow local parental-notification protocols; he said pastors could be included if they met credential requirements. Members also asked about overlap with district and county crisis teams; Pruitt and Sen. West characterized the SREB network as intended to be complementary, especially for longer-term coverage beyond an initial week of response.
The committee recorded multiple statements of support and concerns during the roll call, then Chair Lewis announced: “SCR 43 passes with the expression of opinion that the same should pass.”
SCR 43 now moves forward with the committee’s recorded approval; the resolution itself does not appropriate funds but supports state participation in the SREB initiative.
Votes and procedural notes: committee members recorded “yes” votes during roll call and several members made brief statements explaining their support before the final announcement of passage.
