Month: April 2022

Senate Approves Student Health Services Expansion and Child Care Support Bill

Senator Anwar Votes To Bolster Youth Mental Health Services,
Support More Social Workers in School and Help Child Care Providers

Today, State Senator Saud Anwar [D-South Windsor] joined the Senate to vote for Senate Bill 1, “An Act Concerning Childhood Mental and Physical Health Services in Schools.” Senate Bill 1 takes a thorough approach to supporting youth from their early years through high school. The expansive legislation would build up necessary infrastructure – including school personnel, child care and school-based student resources– to support the needs of the whole child. Further, it responds to the impact that COVID-19 has had on young people, from exacerbating the youth mental health crisis to student disengagement.

“I support this bill due to its critically important provisions for children’s health and development,” said Sen. Anwar. “Primarily, I feel its support for early childhood educators is vital, as the pandemic has harmed early childhood centers and educators. We have a responsibility to provide them salary support and increase School Readiness Grants, further providing emergency support to many centers. This bill provides immediate relief for those needs. I also strongly support the bill’s funding of school-based health care centers. In East Hartford, we have InterCommunity, which shows how school-based health centers can strengthen communities. Having similar resources to their impressive work across the state will benefit many more communities. As well, opioid antagonists and opioid treatment education will save lives. I’m proud to vote yes in support of these important causes.”

Senate Bill 1 would take numerous actions to increase resources and programs available to support children, teenagers, and schools including:

Expanding Student Access to Mental Health Services and Resources for Schools

• Provides $10 million in needs-based grants for improving and expanding services at current school-based health centers. All 36 health centers and 124 schools identified by the state Department of Public Health in need of greater services will be eligible to apply
• Create a grant program for boards of education administered by the Connecticut Department of Education to hire and retain more social workers, psychologists, nurses, and counselors in schools

Increasing Wages for Child Care Workers and Improved Access to Early Childhood Education for Families

• $70 million to fund a new child care and early childhood education worker salary enhancement grant to be administered by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC)
• Nearly doubling the number of infant and toddler spaces in child development centers across Connecticut from currently about 1,500 to around 2,800 spaces. Also increases to $13,500 the rate provided by the OEC per infant and toddler space in these centers

Enhance School Preparedness to Respond to a Student Opioid Overdose

• Boards of education will be provided information on how to acquire no-cost opioid antagonists, like Narcan, by Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection and Department of Education
• Pharmacists and prescribing practitioners can dispense opioid antagonists to board of educations and school district employees will be trained on proper use and handling
• There must be at least one qualified school employee who can administer an opioid antagonist in the event a school nurse is not available

Supporting Connecticut’s Teacher Workforce

• The state Department of Education will study and identify ways to streamline and improve pathways for teacher certification
• Establishes a teacher shortage and retention task force
• $1 million for a new minority teacher candidate scholarship program. The scholarships will be available to graduates of a priority school district and are enrolled in a teacher preparation program at a four-year higher education institution in Connecticut

Bolstering Education Opportunities, Student Engagement, and Inclusivity

• $7 million for the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP), which helps students struggling with absenteeism and disengagement
• The state Board of Education will administer a “career and technical pathways instructor permit” to individuals with training or expertise in manufacturing, allied health, computer technology, engineering, or construction in order to teach a class related to their expertise. The permit will be issued following the request of a local or regional board of education or regional educational service center
• Adds Asian American and Pacific Islander studies to the state curriculum for students
• Establishes an Open Choice school program between Guilford and New Haven
• Create separate task forces on combatting ableism in school-settings, and the governance structure and internal procedures of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC)

According to a 2021 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, high school students who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased to more than one in three students between 2009 and 2019. The same advisory found that suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 increased by almost 60% between 2007 and 2018. This crisis in mental health among youth has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a third of high school students reported having “poor” mental health during the pandemic in 2021, according to a CDC survey of high school students. The survey report underscored that the negative impact of poor mental health extends into other areas of a person’s life including academic performance struggles and increased risk of drug use.

Over 480 young people in Connecticut have lost their lives due to an unintentional drug overdose since 2015, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Fentanyl, an opioid, was involved in over 370 of these overdoses. One life lost is too many and these statistics emphasize the need for schools to strengthen their ability to respond to a student experiencing an opioid overdose.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of young people both during and outside of school hours, especially when it came to child care. 21% of child care centers closed due to the pandemic, according to CT Voices for Children. The job sector that provides a critical support to children during their early years of growth and development, along with helping parents balance work and family, has been hampered in recovering from the pandemic because of struggles to hire and retain workers. An early 2022 poll by the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance of more than 120 providers found that almost 90% reported difficulty hiring staff. The low pay given to child care employees, who are among the lowest-paid workers in the nation, has been a major factor in the difficulty to hire and keep employees.

Senate Passes Bill to Combat Catalytic Converter Theft

Senator Anwar Votes To Bolster Youth Mental Health Services,
Support More Social Workers in School and Help Child Care Providers

HARTFORD – In response to catalytic converter thefts surging in Connecticut and across the country, the state Senate this afternoon passed a bipartisan and comprehensive anti-catalytic converter theft bill designed to kill the criminal market for stolen catalytic converters.

Senate Bill 256, “AN ACT CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OR RECEIPT OF CATALYTIC CONVERTERS BY MOTOR VEHICLE RECYCLERS, SCRAP METAL PROCESSORS AND JUNK DEALERS,” was passed on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

“In order to comprehensively manage the juvenile justice issue and concern over car and car part thefts, we need a multi-pronged approach. This is one of those prongs,” said State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), who voted in support of the bill. “By making it more difficult for criminals to sell these automotive parts, we remove the incentive for them to steal them in the first place, hopefully putting a stop to the practice.”

About half the states in America have already passed or are considering passing new bills pertaining to catalytic converter theft, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Like other states, Connecticut’s bill attempts to kill the market for stolen catalytic converters so thieves have no incentive to steal them in the first place.

Senate Bill 256 accomplishes this in several ways, affecting both vehicle recycling companies and junk yards. Under the bill:

• Motor vehicle recyclers in Connecticut cannot take a catalytic converter from a customer unless:
• It is physically attached to a motor vehicle;
• The recycler affixes or writes a stock number on the part, and creates a written record of the transaction, including the name, address, telephone number and license number and automobile VIN number of the customer.
• For scrap metal processors, junk dealers and junk yards, they cannot accept a catalytic converter that is not attached to a motor vehicle unless:
• They record the place and date of the transaction, a description of the catalytic converter, and the amount paid;
• Records a description of the seller and the seller’s name, address and driver’s license number;
• Affixes or writes a stock number on the catalytic converter;
• Records the license number plate number of the motor vehicle that was used to transport the catalytic converter;
• Obtains from the seller a statement that they own the catalytic converter;
• Takes a photograph or video of the seller and their driver’s license;
• Sellers may sell only one catalytic converter per day to a scrap metal dealer;
• Scrap metal processors and junk dealers can only pay a seller by check, which is mailed to their home address;
• Scrap metal processors and junk dealers have to electronically submit all of their catalytic converter sales information to state police once a week.

If approved by the legislature and signed into law, Connecticut’s catalytic converter theft bill would take effect on July 1.

As precious metals prices soar, catalytic converter thefts have increased all across America. Catalytic converters contain the precious metals rhodium, palladium and platinum, and prices for those precious metals have increased 123% to 1,100% since 2018. For example, rhodium, which was selling for $1,850 an ounce in 2018, has been selling for $20,250 an ounce in 2022. 90 percent of the world’s rhodium is used in automobile catalytic converters, where it is used to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in exhaust gases that are emitted out the tailpipe and into the atmosphere.

As precious metals prices have spiked, so have catalytic converter thefts. Thefts were up 326% nationally from 2019 to 2020, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), an industry association set up to combat insurance fraud. Catalytic converter thefts then jumped another 293% nationwide from mid-2020 to mid-2021, according to the State Farm insurance company.

The NICB says the rise in catalytic converter thefts has been driven not only by the rise in precious metals prices, but by the COVID-19 pandemic of the past two years. People lost income after being laid-off or reduced to working part-time, more people were working at home and leaving their parked outside, and supply chain disruptions caused shortages of already rare precious metals. It only takes a few minutes for criminals with simple tools to steal a catalytic converter that may bring them $150 cash at a junkyard, but which can cost a car owner several hundred to several thousand dollars to replace, depending on their insurance.