NASW-NC Legislative Session Update: Many bills on the move and contact your legislators!

North Carolina legislators moved bills quickly this week. The House of Representatives moved their bill filing deadline from April 27th to May 6th so more bills were filed this week, and a few bills of interest are mentioned below. The House and Senate have one more week to meet the Crossover deadline which is May 13th. Bills that do not make Crossover will not be considered for the rest of the legislative session.

Two anti-abortion bills were addressed this week. House Bill 453 Human Life Non-Discrimination Act/No Eugenics which prohibits abortions based on presumed race or a prenatal diagnosis of down syndrome. This bill passed the House and will now go to the Senate. Additionally, Senate Bill 405 Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act which penalizes providers for not providing healthcare to an infant born alive after an attempted abortion went through one committee. A similar bill passed in 2019 but the Governor vetoed the legislation, and the veto was not able to be overridden. Senate Bill 405 still has one more committee to pass before making it to the Senate floor. Please contact your North Carolina Senator and let them know you are opposed to this legislation (information provided below!). Here is more information from Planned Parenthood North Carolina about these two bills.

The House also discussed House Bill 395 HIEA Deadline Extension & Patient Protection which extends the deadline for providers to connect to the Health Information Exchange Authority (HIEA). NASW-NC lobbied legislators to prevent a penalty from being added as proposed in other bills and we are ecstatic that legislators did not move forward with financial penalties. The updated bill delays the date that most social workers are supposed to connect from October 1, 2021 until January 1, 2023 and would prohibit a provider from billing a patient if they do not get paid due to failure to connect to the HIEA. The bill passed the House with no opposition and now goes to the Senate.

The House also took up and passed House Bill 149 Improving Access to Care Through Telehealth which provides for telehealth services to be covered the same as in person visits. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Several school bills passed the House including House Bill 760 which creates an Opportunity Task Force to study significant disparities in academic performance and postsecondary readiness of students. This is known as the opportunity gap and legislators want to Task Force to consider race, ethnicities, socioeconomic statues, gender, urban, rural, and other impacted groups. The Task Force will consider effective approaches and best practices to close the opportunity gap in kindergarten through 12th grades and will propose a plan to reduce the opportunity gap by July 1, 2030. The bill passed with no opposition. The House also passed a problematic bill, House Bill 247 Standards of Student Conduct which removes violations that were put into state law in 2011 that are deemed not serious enough for long-term school suspension. The violations include inappropriate language, dress code violations, or noncompliance. Removing these means students can receive long-term school suspensions for any of these violations. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Bills filed of interest to social workers:

• HB 772 Long-Term Care for NC Veterans: This legislation directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, to study the long-term care needs of veterans in the State.
• HB 786 Enhance Local Response/Mental Health Crises: This bipartisan bill will create a pilot program that will provide grants to local law enforcement agencies to better enhance responses to mental or behavioral health crises. Grants can be used to establish nonpolice units to address nonviolent, noncriminal 911 calls regarding mental health, substance use, or other behavioral health crises. They can also be used to establish co-responder response models in which law enforcement personnel and mental health specialists jointly respond to 911 calls regarding mental or behavioral health crises. Lastly, the grant funding can also be used to establish a mental health division or bolster existing mental health services within a police department or sheriff’s office. NASW-NC supports this legislation and worked in Coalition to get this legislation filed.
• HB 787 Improved Data on Involuntary Commitments: This bipartisan bill establishes involuntary commitment data collection and reporting requirements for area facilities and hospitals where first examinations for involuntary commitments are preformed and for LME/MCOs. NASW-NC supports this legislation and worked in Coalition to get this legislation filed.
• HB 788 Achieve Better Mental Health Recovery Results: This bipartisan legislation provides funds to support peer-run recovery wellness centers. It also creates a North Carolina Mental Health Recovery and Resiliency Agenda and creates a Mental Health Policy Chief in NC DHHS.
• HB 882 Behavioral Health Services for Students: This legislation would allow public schools to permit behavioral health providers to provide services to students on school property during the instructional day at the request of the parent or guardian of the student. The behavioral health provider would not need to be an employee of the school. NASW-NC supports this legislation.
  
  

Action Alert

With Crossover next week, we ask you to reach out to your legislators and let them know your support for legislation listed that is supported by NASW-NC.

Find your legislators here including contact information for each legislator.

Sample email or phone script to legislators:

Hi, my name is _________, I am a social worker and constituent in your district. I am calling in support of (or in opposition to if you are calling to oppose Senate Bill 405) House Bill insert bill number and title.

Share a personal story if you wish, be brief and relate it to the bill.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Your name and title and/or credentials

NASW-NC is here to support you in advocacy efforts. If you have any questions or wish to consult before reaching out to your legislators, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at kcastillo.naswnc@socialworkers.org.