By Renee McGuinness 

During recent House Health Care Committee discussion on H.817, a bill that proposes to provide optional mental health literacy and peer-to-peer mental health clubs in public schools, Committee Member Valorie Taylor asked expert witness Terri Lavely, Board Chair of the Vermont chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and Mental Health Professional for Northeast Kingdom Human Services, “What age is appropriate [for students to receive mental health education]?”

Lavely responded, “Preschool. We teach our kids how to brush their teeth and wash their armpits, why wouldn’t we teach them what their mental health is from a very, very young age?”

Lavely has trained school guidance counselors to read, “Gizmo’s Pawsome Guide to Mental Health”, developed by the United Way in Connecticut, to students Pre-K through fifth grade. The digital book helps children self-diagnose their mental health based upon their eating and sleeping habits and their mood: crying, arguing, boredom, wanting to be alone, and feeling stressed. The book suggests that children can manage their mental health through regulated breathing, participating in arts and crafts, playing dress-up, and meditation.

Lavely also dispenses 988 Lifeline emergency hotline swag to older students – posters, magnets, stickers – and stated during her testimony that students might remember to call the 988 helpline when they cannot sleep at two in the morning, instead of suggesting parents as the first line of assistance.

H.817, “An act relating to mental health support and substance use disorder prevention in schools,” would create a pilot program that would provide mental health literacy programs to educators, school personnel, and students as young as preschool age. Programs would be optional under H.817. However, on February 24, 2026, the House Committee on Health Care discussed the possibility of adding incentives or a mandatory provision to get the programs in every school.

Committee discussion and transcript can be found here.

H.817, “Aims to strengthen protective factors among Vermont’s youth, increase mental health literacy within school communities, and expand access to developmentally appropriate peer-to-peer initiatives that promote early identification of mental health challenges.”

Mental health literacy topics include: information about mental health conditions and symptoms; understanding common youth mental health and substance use challenges; reducing stigma; promoting supportive environments; strengthening protective factors and help-seeking behaviors; recognizing risk factors and warning signs; responding to students with empathy and appropriate boundaries; information about mental health treatments; accessing mental health treatments.

An educator or school personnel member that receives mental health certification training from mental health non-profits across the state would oversee the peer-to-peer mental health support programs. Certified personnel, “are not required to be a licensed, certified, or rostered mental health professional under Title 26 [Professions and Regulations].”

Section 2 (c) C) emphasizes school and community-based resources and how to access professional services when additional support is needed. (Emphasis mine.)

H.817 provides no mechanism for funding. Public schools that want to participate would apply to the Department of Mental Health for a federal block grant to pay for the cost of these programs.

Issues with H.817

• The original draft of H.817 placed mental health literacy under Title 16 Education. The heavily revised draft of February 21 moved H.817 to Title 18 Health and removed the provision that required schools to make the chosen mental health curriculum available to parents and guardians.
• The Family Educational Rights and Protections Act (FERPA) requires schools to allow parents to access and review their children’s education records, which includes curriculum.
• There is no express parental consent or notification provision. Educators, school personnel, and students will be certified to identify, discuss, and offer support to students on weighty subjects such as depression, suicidality, and substance use disorders, yet there is no express parental consent or notification provision for parents whose children might be identified as suffering from mental health issues.

• The latest draft of H.817 might circumvent established laws and practices under the Department of Children and Families for youth who are in crisis by failing to include parents in their children’s mental health, potentially making school personnel and peers unauthorized proxies for parents without due process.
• What are the legal consequences for schools, mental health-certified adults, and students when they identify a student with symptoms of mental health issues such as depression, suicidality, and/or substance abuse, and that student attempts or succeeds in their own suicide or dies from an overdose, and the certified mental health mentors failed to share the student’s condition with the parents?
• According to state law, a minor of any age may consent to mental health treatment services.  Does H.817 open the door for school personnel or other “trusted adults” to recommend and transport students to mental health providers without parental knowledge and consent?
• H.817 could be a vehicle for affirming the social transition, and down the road, assisting with the chemical transition, of children. H.817 does not contain an express provision to coach children, teens, and adolescents about gender identity and expression, but we all know the subject will come up in their adult- and peer-lead mental health clubs. The only legally allowed provision for addressing gender dysphoria is to affirm the youth’s dysphoria, under Vermont’s law that bans conversion therapy for minors. Shortly after a $2 million medical malpractice settlement in favor of a detransitioning teen against her psychologist and plastic surgeon, the American Medical Association and American Society of Plastic Surgeons made statements that there is insufficient evidence to support surgical intervention under age 19. Hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones still have a green light.
• While H.817 will not be mandatory upon passage, we can anticipate it will be mandatory in the future.

Expert witness Laurie Emerson, Executive Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Vermont, offers several programs for teens and families, including student mental health clubs.

While Emerson stressed the importance of family training and involvement in youth mental health issues, and Committee Member Brian Cina stated that the bill does not provide direction for when youth bring up issues to their parents, “maybe it just happens and doesn’t need to be written here, that whoever is conducting this work with the youth have the ability or resources to refer parents or do outreach to parents if things come up, or maybe we also look at doing parent groups as a pilot project.”

Committee member Daisy Burbeco, lead sponsor of H.817, replied to Cina that peer-to-peer education for children is not clinical mental health treatment. The program is for the purposes of connecting students with one another and with existing resources, “It’s not intended to create another system of family supports,” she said.

VFA requested to testify before the Health Care Committee, which was declined due to time constraints. VFA’s written testimony has been uploaded to the Committee’s page, found here.

H.817 is expected to pass out of the House Committee on Health Care before the crossover deadline of March 13 – the date by which bills must be passed out of committee and voted upon and passed by their respective chambers – and will most likely be taken up by the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare.