SADDLEBACK/SOUTH BEACH : MISSION VIEJO : Schools to Keep Counseling Program

Parents will have more authority, but high school students can still seek confidential alcohol and drug rehabilitation counseling, under a compromise approved by a divided Saddleback Valley Unified School District board.

The board voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to keep the state-funded counseling program, which became mired in controversy last year over family planning and abortion issues.

Trustees said the key to keeping the program is a permission form, which notifies parents that because the counseling is funded through Medi-Cal, their children could be eligible to seek confidential family planning services such as abortion without parental approval.

If parents sign their approval, their child could leave class to participate in the counseling program administered by the Orange County Health Care Agency. Actual participation by a student in the counseling program, however, is still confidential.

Parents can also sign a section of the form saying they do not want their child released from class.

“We are giving choice to the parents,” trustee Marcia L. Birch said.

About 80 district students received alcohol and drug counseling through the program last year. The counseling program was also offered at 36 other campuses in the county.

Trustees Debbie Hughes and Frank L. Ury voted against the plan, saying they supported the alcohol and drug counseling, but not the state requirement that they go along with the entire Medi-Cal Minor Consent program.

Hughes suggested that the district find “private money” to pay for the counseling.

Under the 15-year-old Medi-Cal Minor Consent program, students 12 years or older, regardless of their family income, are entitled to receive free or low-cost confidential treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, family planning and sexual assault.

To pay for the alcohol and drug counseling program, students sign up each month for Medi-Cal coverage on campus. Once the students are on Medi-Cal, they can request a card allowing them to seek other confidential services off-campus without the knowledge of their parents.

The program came under fire last winter when school board members learned that students could use Medi-Cal for services such as abortions without parental approval.

Although district officials said most students used their Medi-Cal eligibility only for the drug and alcohol counseling, and rarely even requested a Medi-Cal card, board members said parents needed more say in what type of services their children were being provided through the school district.

Last winter, district officials asked the Health Care Agency to stop signing up students for Medi-Cal unless the coverage was limited to alcohol and drug counseling.

Without the ability to sign up the students for Medi-Cal coverage on campus, county officials said they began losing reimbursement from the state to pay for counselors and closed the program in April.