Health

Passage of this bill will ensure that treatment of autism spectrum disorders for children who qualify for health insurance under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will be covered which increases support to especially vulnerable children and provides greater equity in services for all children.

Passage of this bill will establish a cooperative council of education and mental health leaders to work to provide support for youth and families related to mental and behavioral health, as well as substance abuse issues.

Passage of this bill will move forward the funding necessary to initiate the national 988 Suicide and Crisis phone number to provide the necessary services for a person needing mental health services in a time of severe crisis. Similar to '911' which deals with sending help in times of physical crisis, '988' will offer similar support in a situation of severe mental or emotional crisis such as a person seriously contemplating suicide.

Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child's health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems. No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Passage of this legislation will create an education program to inform parents about the effects of lead exposure, the availability of free screenings and testing for lead exposure, and available preventative measures.

Passage of this bill will take a percentage of the sales of liquor (0.2%-0.4%) to be used to help educate concerning the dangers to the fetus of women alcohol who consume alcohol while they are pregnant.

This bill will ensure the ability of a patron to secure information about whether they have already received a vaccination--date and place. It will also prevent duplication of vaccination because a record cannot be produced to show an immunization was received. Parents can still opt out of having the immunization recorded in the database.

The concept of parents being foremost responsible for their child's school attendance is good; nonetheless, parents can currently excuse a child's absence without a doctor's note.

While the concept of allowing absence for reasons of mental or behavioral health is laudable, parents can currently excuse their child's absences for any reason.

This bill will tighten up our laws to reduce opiate abuse by preventing "doctor shopping" and illegal prescription practices.