MINEOLA, Texas — Mineola ISD is taking advantage of a new state law now in effect to continue offering expanded mental health counseling to students.
As the state of Texas deals with a shortage of school counselors, MISD voted to adopt Senate Bill 763, which allows public schools to employ or accept volunteer unlicensed religious chaplains to work in mental health roles.
This decision to start seeking chaplains to aid in student counseling was adopted by the MISD school board last week making them one of the first districts in the state to utilize the new law.
Superintendent Cody Mize said this action was taken because the district is reaching the end of their elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund which was given to the district during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We decided it's not a paid position," Mize said. "It's going to be a voluntary position for us and we're going to sit down with our counselors here in the district and we're going to create a list of qualifications. We're going to put that information out to our community and see if anyone would want to volunteer to assist in that role."
These volunteers will go through a background check and will require a parent’s consent to counsel a student before engagement. Mize also said the school is open to chaplains of different faiths that best suit a student seeking mental help.
"I can't think of a better qualified person if they're dealing with a crisis and if the parents are good with it and it comes from a similar faith that they have," Mize said. "To be able to work with someone like-minded in their faith, I think that's a huge benefit for our kids."
The superintendent said this is an opportunity to have an extra set of hands to help their students and to help parents who may not feel comfortable approaching a certain mental health subject with their child.
"Mental health is such a a big topic right now because kids are going through a variety of things at their homes and they're coming here to school," Mize said. "They have people here that they trust, they love and they care about and they want to seek that help. So if we can provide those avenues of help, we want to provide that for our kids."