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Legislative Alert: Send a personal invitation to your U.S. Senators to attend the first U.S. Senate briefing on School Mental Health Services on March 21, 2006.

Date: March 13, 2006

Action Requested: NASP needs you to personally invite your U.S. Senators to attend the first U.S. Senate briefing on "Removing Barriers to Learning: The Role of School-Employed Mental Health Service Providers"

NASP needs you to send a personal invitation to your U.S. Senators, as they are more likely to attend if they receive an invitation from a constituent like you. This briefing is the first U.S. Senate briefing specifically addressing the roles and responsibilities of school-employed mental health service providers. The briefing has bipartisan support and is being sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (MA-D) and Senator Pete Domenici (NM-R). This briefing will have a principal, parent and student, and a school psychologist, counselor, and social worker presenting. 

The purpose of the briefing is to help legislators understand the critical relationship between the work of school mental health providers (school psychologists, counselors, and social workers), a student's mental health, and their ability to be successful in school.

1. Send a letter to your U.S. Senators through the NASP Advocacy Action Center. Click on the following link and you will be guided through a simple 1-minute process for sending an e-mail to your elected official. You only need your name and address to submit this correspondence. Click on the address here or type it in if your link fails. http://capwiz.com/naspweb/home. Go to the ACTION ALERT box and click on "Send a personal invitation to your U.S. Senator to attend the first U.S. Senate School Mental Health Briefing on March 21, 2006"  OR

2. If you know the name of your Congressional Senators or Representative, you can call them by phone: Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Once you are connected with your elected official, you will likely get a voicemail system where you should say, "Hi, my name is (your name) from (your city and state). As your constituent, I am calling to invite you to attend a U.S. Senate briefing on 'Removing the Barriers to Learning: The Role of School-Employed Mental Health Service Providers.' This briefing will be held on Tuesday, March 21 from 8:30-10:00 am in the Hart Senate Office Building, room 902.  This briefing will provide valuable information about the strong relationship between a student's positive mental health and academic achievement. Thank you for considering attending this important event.  If you need to reach me for any reason, you can contact me at (your phone number) or (your e-mail address)."

3. Forward this e-mail to any school psychologist friends or school mental health colleagues that you think might be interested in participating in this effort (they can edit their letter to say school counselor or social worker). They do not have to be NASP members to participate.

Thank you for your advocacy efforts and being part of the 1-minute solution!  If you have any questions or comments about this alert, please feel free to contact NASP Public Policy Director, Stacy Skalski, at sskalski@naspweb.org or 301-657-0270.

"I never worry about action, but only inaction."

--Winston Churchill