Bipartisan Michigan group to urge $100M+ in school safety, mental health programs Task force to release full recommendations soon

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are expected to urge the state of Michigan spend more than $100 million on new mental health and safety programs for schools, according to a draft of recommendations obtained by Local 4.

The draft, split into presentation slides, was created by the School Safety Task Force, which was formed in the wake of the school shooting at Oxford High School. The group has been working in the background for months, hammering out details and making compromises across the aisle in one of the most fraught election cycles in recent memory.

“I’m a Democrat and there are a few Republicans that I would absolutely just walk-through fire for them,” said Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) in an interview about the draft. “There’s 10 million people that live in Michigan. We shouldn’t be making this partisan. So, it’s for all of them.”

According to the draft, the state needs to find between $101 million and $184 million dollars with goals to fund up to eight new mental health and safety services for schools, including $10 million for school incidence mapping, $10 million for digital mental health screening, $20 million in incentives for mental health workers to work in schools and $52 million for 100 school based health care centers.

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Kelly Breen