Committee hears proposal to restore student‑support personnel funding, backed by psychologists and nurses

Representative Sensory Murrow moved House File 3857 to restore previously planned increases in student support personnel aid and to resume funding levels intended to grow the program toward $48 per pupil. He framed the bill as both reactive to recent trauma and proactive in reducing future risk by strengthening school‑based mental‑health staffing.

A series of licensed practitioners and school leaders testified in support. Dr. Molly Weeks (Minnesota School Psychologist Association) urged restoration of funding to retain school psychologists, and Sarah Bernhardt, a nationally certified school psychologist, said licensed school staff are often the first place children access mental‑health care. "Student support personnel aid was created for a clear purpose to expand access to licensed professionals such as school psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses," Bernhardt said.

Dr. Tasha Just, president‑elect of the Minnesota School Psychologist Association, described current staff shortages and said the bill would bring purchasing power closer to the program’s original intent so districts can recruit and sustain staff. School social workers and the School Nurse Organization of Minnesota also testified that school‑based clinicians and nurses are essential to student safety and attendance and urged support for the bill.

Why it matters: presenters said shortages of licensed personnel limit schools’ ability to provide early intervention and crisis response. Testifiers tied restored funding to better prevention, earlier identification of learning and mental‑health needs, and improved academic outcomes.

Representative Sensory Murrow and proponents asked for the bill to be laid over so fiscal details and implementation can be reviewed; the committee agreed to consider the legislation further along with the other safe‑school proposals.