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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2022
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
Health
Continued from Page 1A
Virginia.
Student to mental health
professional ratios are
‘astonishingly bad’ across US
One role schools play is in early inter-
vention. Half of all mental illness
presents itself before age 14.
“The earlier you intervene with effec-
tive treatment outcomes, the lower the
cost, and the greater the opportunity for
a life well-lived,” said Angela Kimball of
Inseparable, a mental health care policy
advocacy group that spearheaded the
report card. “The longer you wait, the
worse outcomes. And typically when
conditions get worse, they get more
complex, and they get harder to treat.”
But the vast majority of states lack
the recommended ratios of school men-
tal health professionals, including
counselors, psychologists and social
workers.
Only Idaho and Washington, D.C., ex-
ceed the nationally recommended ratio
of one school psychologist for every 500
students. In five states — West Virginia,
Missouri, Texas, Alaska and Georgia —
each school psychologist serves signifi-
cantly more than 4,000 students.
Oregon falls on the higher end of that
scale as well, with just one school psy-
chologist per 3,393 students.
Access to school-based social work-
ers is even worse: No state meets — let
alone exceeds — the recommended ra-
tio of one social worker for every 250
students. Oregon’s rate is one social
worker to 8,831 students.
Oregon has more school counselors
available than the other two categories,
with still just one counselor to 461 stu-
dents, though.
“The ratios are so astonishingly bad
it’s almost inconceivable,” Kimball said.
Understaffing is just one part of the
problem. States tend to be lacking in
other areas, too, according to the report
– rarely do they require regular mental
health screenings, for example, or fully
leverage Medicaid dollars to fund cer-
tain services.
States are also inconsistent in their
teacher training and school climate re-
quirements. Culturally competent edu-
cators and healthy, inclusive school cli-
mates are especially important for mar-
ginalized populations such as LGBTQ+
youth.
“We all could be doing a better job in
supporting the the needs and unique
challenges experienced by LGBTQ
young people,” said Preston Mitchum of
The Trevor Project, which provides cri-
sis support to queer youth. Suicide-pre-
vention training, LGBTQ+-inclusive
curricula and policies honoring stu-
dents’ preferred pronouns contribute to
healthier school climates.
Having at least one accepting adult
can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt
among LGBTQ young people by 40%.
Prices
Continued from Page 1A
sale price because experts say the medi-
an offers a more accurate view of what's
happening in a market. In finding the
average price, all prices of homes sold
are added and then divided by the num-
ber of homes sold. This measure can be
Oregon has made changes in recent
years to add funding for this purpose.
In 2019, state lawmakers passed the
Student Success Act, which promised
a $2 billion investment in children and
schools every two years, with a portion
going to districts (in a Student Invest-
ment Account), a portion dedicated to
early education, and a third portion for
statewide initiatives, such as the
LGBTQ2SIA+ Student Success plan.
This was impacted by COVID-19 as
well, with legislators cutting a portion
of the funds in 2020 for other needs.
However, districts still received mil-
lions of dollars in state funding to sup-
port these changes.
Funds granted to districts from the
Student Investment Account (created
through the SSA) are only allowed to
go toward certain targets: reducing
class size, instructional time, health
and safety and well-rounded educa-
tion. This includes hiring more school
psychologists or counselors to help
with student mental health, which
some have utilized the funding for.
New Jersey, Kansas, Virginia
among few states to show
marked progress
There are bright spots. New Jersey
last year created a grant program that
allows schools to do annual depres-
sion screenings on children in grades
7-12, for instance. And Kansas formed
an advisory council that brings togeth-
er lawmakers, family members and
providers to guide the state board of
education on student mental health.
Another area that’s seen some pro-
gress is mental health education.
While many states include mental
health as a topic in general health cur-
ricula, it often falls by the wayside. But
some states have passed legislation
that deepens the focus on mental
health education, including Virginia
and New York.
Waithe, the Virginia high schooler,
is working on a project with Active
Minds, one of the organizations in the
coalition, to bring mental health edu-
cation to young children in his area. By
normalizing such conversations be-
fore they’re in high school, the hope is
they’ll be better equipped to navigate
their own mental health as they get
older.
In addition to pushing for more ro-
bust mental health education, the
Hopeful Futures Campaign is launch-
ing a website where students and par-
ents can learn about policies in their
area and how to effect change through
petitions, letter-writing and other ad-
vocacy.
“When students know about men-
tal health, they feel more empowered,”
Kimball said. “They feel better able to
seek help.”
Register-Guard reporter Jordyn
Brown contributed to this report.
Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-
2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow
her on Twitter at @aliaemily.
skewed by one low or high price.
The USA TODAY Network is publish-
ing localized versions of this story on
its news sites across the country, gen-
erated with data from Realtor.com. Lo-
calized versions are generated for
communities where the data quality
and transaction volume meets Real-
tor.com and USA TODAY Network
standards. The story was written by
Sean Lahman.
Oregon bill allowing more
self-service gas advances
Connor Radnovich
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
A bill that would allow more Orego-
nians to pump their own gas advanced
out of committee despite concerns
from lawmakers about the legisla-
tion’s impact on people with disabili-
ties, the elderly and gas station atten-
dants.
After an amendment, House Bill
4151 would allow gas station owners to
designate up to half of their pumps as
self-service.
Opponents doubted there would be
any substantive benefit for residents –
other than to gas station owners who
would not have to employ as many at-
tendants – and were concerned gas
stations would flout the rule capping
self-service at only half of pumps.
Lawmakers also noted individuals
who, by age or by disability, have trou-
ble getting out of their vehicles would
be harmed by this bill, and it would
place more work upon those who are
unfamiliar with the process of pump-
ing gas.
“I hate this bill,” Rep. Paul Evans, D-
Monmouth, said. “I see this as corpo-
rate welfare writ large and I am very
concerned about the long-term conse-
quences.”
Proponents of HB 4151 said it is long
past time for Oregon to join 48 other
states (other than New Jersey) where
self-service of gasoline is the norm.
Passing the bill, they said, would grant
consumers a choice of service when
refilling their vehicles and help allevi-
ate some of the labor shortages plagu-
ing gas stations.
They said that in some areas of the
state, half of a gas station’s pumps are
unavailable for use because they only
have one attendant, leading to long
lines.
Lawmakers in support also noted
the state has allowed residents in rural
areas to pump their own gas in some
form since 2016.
“When you walk into a store, you
have the option of going through a
clerk or checking out self-checkout,”
Rep. Rick Lewis, R-Silverton, said.
“It’s no different with self-service
gas.”
Despite support from lawmakers
on both sides of the aisle, the bill only
advanced to the budget-writing Ways
and Means committee after “courtesy
Package
Continued from Page 1A
home, in the hopes of building wealth
among working families.
But the heart of the package is $165
million for addressing homelessness,
focused on giving nonprofits, local
governments and existing programs
additional funds to expand their ser-
vices.
Of the $165 million:
h $80 million will address “immedi-
ate” need, including shelter infra-
structure, rapid rehousing and referral
services.
h $50 million will go to Project
Turnkey 2.0, which repurposes mostly
hotels into shelters or housing.
Trees
Continued from Page 1A
The 2020 wildfires burned more than
1 million acres in Oregon, with private
forestland accounting for more than
400,000 of those acres. Though large
timberland owners often have big seed-
lings orders on reserve, small woodland
owners can lack the same luxury.
But an immediate demand for seed-
lings from small landowners did not
materialize quite the way some expect-
ed it would. Demand remains still high,
but it’s being stretched out.
“The forecasted demand was going to
be extremely significant,” ODF Family
Forest Land Coordinator Nate Agalzoff
said. “We have more people that need
them than are available, but the con-
straints and variables are, effectively,
spreading that demand out.”
Constraints and variables
The situation is now more complex
than just a dearth of seedlings.
“It seems like the seedlings are avail-
able and some of the other bottlenecks
are starting to play out,” said Lauren
Grand, a forester with OSU Extension
Service in Lane County. “Nurseries and
technical assistance providers expected
a seedling shortage was going to be in-
evitable, so they prepared for that. Now
we’re working on the other bottlenecks
that we didn’t think about right away.”
Many who prioritized rebuilding
their homes and livelihoods over imme-
diate reforestation found the wood-
lands quickly grew over with weeds and
Rows of seedlings wait to be harvested and processed at Brooks Tree Farm.
BRIAN HAYES/STATESMAN JOURNAL
other vegetation. Young timber trees
wouldn’t survive that competition, so
many landowners aren’t ready for seed-
lings.
“There’s still a pending reforestation
need on a given property, but now you
have a bunch of competition vegetation
that needs to be addressed,” Agalzoff
said. “If you say, ‘I have trees for you
next week,’ they say they can’t get a
planting contractor on short notice or
they still have a lot of work left to do to
get a new canvas for their plantation.”
Ahrens said many landowners
haven’t concluded salvage harvesting
because loggers are busy statewide, and
replanting efforts can’t begin until the
burned trees are cleared.
Though resources are available, Ah-
rens said not all landowners know about
them.
“Right now, somewhat ironically, we
have surplus seedlings from this effort
that Oregon Department of Forestry and
partners have undertaken. They or-
dered almost 400,000 seedlings in a
hurry right after the fire,” Ahrens said.
“We’re not able to get rid of all our trees
this season because the landowners are
not ready or haven’t connected with us.”
Nurseries react to demand
Kathy LeCompte, owner of Brooks
Tree Farm north of Salem, said business
is strong.
“I’m still getting calls everyday. That
leads me to believe a lot of people out
there are hunting for trees,” she said.
“We are still ramped up for large produc-
tion for next year.”
LeCompte said her nursery over the
‘yes’ votes” from two Democratic law-
makers.
Lawmakers cast courtesy votes
when they don’t support a policy, but
for various reasons want to allow the
bill to move forward in the legislative
process.
Those votes indicate that despite co-
chief sponsorship by House Democratic
Leader Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and
member of House Republican leader-
ship Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Alba-
ny, the bill might not have the support to
advance this session.
Timing is another issue – the Legis-
lature must adjourn no later than March
7, per Constitutional rules.
But bipartisan work on the bill con-
tinued through Tuesday, including the
introduction and adoption of an
amendment that gained even the sup-
port of lawmakers opposed to the policy
overall.
The amendment specified gas sta-
tion owners may not designate more
than half of their pumps for self-service
and increased the civil penalty the State
Fire Marshal could levy against gas sta-
tions to $5,000 per day per violation.
The amendment also requires posted
signage that shows which pumps are
designated for self-service and lists the
phone number for the State Fire Mar-
shal for individuals to call if an atten-
dant is not available to pump gas.
Enforcement of the law would fall
onto individuals calling the State Fire
Marshal, which was another aspect of
the bill that concerned lawmakers.
Oversight that relies on the individual
instead of the state are rarely effective,
they argued.
The threat of a $5,000 fine is sup-
posed to encourage compliance with
the law.
Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro,
noted that if the bill passed she might
make it a hobby of driving around to dif-
ferent gas stations to see if they are
complying with the law.
“Oregon’s trying to do it differently. I
really believe that we should give it an
opportunity,” McLain said. “Like every
other bill, if it’s not working we can up-
date it, we can strengthen it, we can put
more sideboards.”
Reporter Connor Radnovich covers
the Oregon Legislature and state gov-
ernment. Contact him at cradnovich@
statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-
6864, or follow him on Twitter at
@CDRadnovich.
h $25 million will be split among nine
local governments (including Salem) to
be used for any number of needs in
those communities to address home-
lessness.
“Salem is facing a homeless crisis,
like communities across the state. It is
our duty to address this crisis with ur-
gency,” Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth,
said in a statement. “Success will de-
pend on coordination between state
and local governments, and the flexibil-
ity for local communities like Salem to
execute a distinct, regional solution. I’m
proud to support this multifaceted ap-
proach.”
The package falls in line with a pre-
session request from Gov. Kate Brown
for the Legislature to commit $400 mil-
lion toward affordable housing.
past year shifted some production from
Christmas trees in favor of timber trees
because of their more immediate need
in replanting efforts.
“The Douglas fir for this year, we were
prepared to sell a lot more and we
booked those orders. Our crop came in
surplus with extra trees and we’re sell-
ing those,” she said.
Timber giant Weyerhaeuser grows its
own seedlings for replanting after log-
ging, but the 2020 wildfires left signifi-
cant impacts on its timberlands requir-
ing seedlings be planted.
“You look at the fire itself, both in
terms of acreage and seedling demand,
it was more than twice the impact to our
company as the Mount St. Helen erup-
tion. We’re looking at 125,000 acres to
reforest and somewhere between 35-40
million trees to do that,” said Jeff Mehl-
schau, Weyerhaeuser’s western regen-
eration team leader.
Weyerhaeuser nurseries in Oregon
and Washington send out about 20 mil-
lion seedlings each year to customers
outside the company, from small land-
owners to other timber companies. The
nurseries supply a nearly equal amount
for the company’s replanting.
Mehlschau said the company wants
to have its lands reforested by spring
2024.
“We had to increase our internal pro-
duction.” Mehlschau said. “The roughly
half of our production that goes outside
of Weyerhaeuser … we did not stop
growing for somebody to grow more for
Weyerhaeuser. We kept their space in
our system available to them.”
Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at
aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow
on Twitter @DuvernayOR.