Committee advances bill to add funding to existing K‑12 and community mental‑health grants

A sponsor presented Senate File 45‑31 to add funding to several existing mental‑health grant programs and moved the author's A‑1 amendment to insert dollar amounts and remove an unwanted section. The programs named include School Link behavioral-health grants, family peer specialist startup grants, mobile crisis grants and mental-health grants to strengthen the workforce.

A member asked whether the proposal adds funding to previously appropriated lines; the sponsor said it adds funding but did not have current balances on hand and offered to provide the fiscal analyst’s figures offline. Senator Lisky asked the sponsor to supply details on remaining funding so members can see how much is available for the new awards. With no further objections, the committee adopted the author's amendment and moved the bill to the Judiciary Committee for further consideration.