RHB/3/20
Sponsored by Wyatt Bitting, Sydney Greenwood of Loretto High School
This legislation was filed in the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | Be it enacted the Tennessee YMCA Youth in Government: |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: This bill would aim to reduce the amount of cases where officers are ill equipped to deal |
| 4 | with any cases of citizen distress or disabilities that they may encounter in the field, by placing |
| 5 | social work classes in all police academies in Tennessee, thereby giving the officers the ability and |
| 6 | experience to defuse and/or de-escalate any situation that might require so. |
| 7 | Disabilities: Any mental or physical hindrances. |
| 8 | Distress: Emotional or physical panic or mania. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Section 2: All police academies in the state of Tennessee will be required to establish a social work |
| 11 | class into the curriculum. The standards of the class will be set and regulated by both the Police |
| 12 | Academy and the CSWE (Council Of Social Work Education). Officers employed currently will be |
| 13 | required to go back to the academy and get certified in the social work classes. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Section 3: Officers who have already been adequately certified in any kind of Psychology, Social |
| 16 | Work classes etc… will not be affected by this bill and will not be required to be re-certified as |
| 17 | long as they completed the classes within the past 5 years. Those who fail to complete their |
| 18 | certification in social work will be terminated. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Section 4: Given that the average cost of a social work teacher is 48,000. The addition of this |
| 21 | course would cost $18,750,000, and will be funded through the State of Tennessee’s Budget. Any |
| 22 | remaining funds in the budget will be put back into the Tennessee general budget. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Section 5: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Section 6: This act shall take effect immediately upon passing. |
| 27 | |
| 28 |