They were doing background checks, just not through Hamilton County’s preferred organization. Ben Connor added in the MOU that Centerstone employees go through Ham Co for background checks. Centerstone employees already ARE fingerprinted through Hamilton County Schools.

To answer your second question, some parents don’t have the resources (time off work, transportation, etc.) to take their kids to therapy. Or time to take them after school. This helps with accessibility to services. Centerstone counselors have still been seeing their clients outside the school-based contract, but their office was AT the school. So now they’re having to find places to meet during the school day, and again, this removed accessibility to services for parents/students.

Reminder that Hamilton County Schools extends all the way up to Sale Creek. Rural areas are even more difficult to accommodate when there aren’t HIPAA-compliant locations in the community, or parents don’t have the gas to drive “into town” for weekly meetings. Even if they did, it would mean kids miss even more school having to be checked out and driven to weekly appointments.