When it comes to the education, health and welfare of our children, the safest protection is also the simplest: schools educate, healthcare providers provide healthcare, and parents remain firmly in charge of the decisions between the two.

In Louisiana, the powers-that-be decided in 1991 that school-based health centers combining medical care with mental-health evaluations and treatment were somehow a good idea for our children.

This year, a bill (HB1249) was authored by Democrat Stephen Jackson and passed into law that modified the statute and weakened protections for our children. Sen. Rick Edmonds voted for the bill and attacked Blake Miguez for voting against it. Edmonds claimed it helps families, but it does the opposite. The Louisiana Freedom Caucus recommended everyone vote no.

It was shocking that Edmonds supported this Democrat bill as the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Yet he did begin his political career as a Democrat running for office in his hometown of Shreveport. Read more here.

Set aside for a moment the larger concern of giving healthcare providers access to children through their schools without a parent present. We have already seen the controversy produced by that model play out nationally, particularly over the diagnosis and treatment of children for “gender dysphoria.” The subject here is that these centers already existed, but a specific bill passed by the legislature in 2026 has removed some of the guardrails. Without these restrictions being spelled out in law, bureaucratic “experts” are left to write the rules.

The most troubling problem with this bill is what this law does not require. HB1249 contains no annual reauthorization of a parent’s consent to school-based health center services and no requirement for specific parental consent before a new, non-routine evaluation or treatment.

It is unclear whether parents fully understand that this is not permission for a child to visit the school nurse. These services can be provided by outside healthcare companies operating on campus, performing evaluations and treatments that are billed directly to Medicaid, private insurance or other third-party payors. A parent can revoke consent but, until then, that blanket authorization with no annual reminder remains in effect under a questionable notification process.

The law requires parental notification in certain circumstances, it does not specify how that notification must be made or require documented proof that the parent received it before the medical treatment is provided. Notification without confirmed receipt prior to treatment is worthless.

Now add in the financial incentive. A school gives a healthcare company something extraordinarily valuable: convenient access to a concentrated population of children and allows direct billing. That does not make school-based healthcare providers corrupt. But when access to children and access to reimbursement exist under the same roof, lawmakers should recognize the obvious potential for overuse and abuse. The current Medicaid fraud scandals most notably in Minnesota and California have exposed the loopholes in direct billing schemes.

HB1249 even specifically removed any local BESE actions to standardize the rules which could fix some of these problems through local control.

When children, parental rights and taxpayer dollars are involved, guardrails matter.

A bill that helped families would have included stronger safeguards: mandated annual parental authorization, affirmative consent for non-routine evaluations and treatments, documented parental notification and clear billing transparency. Instead, HB1249 moved in the opposite direction.

Rick Edmonds supported this Democrat bill.  Blake Miguez voted against it.

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Connie Hair is the Louisiana State Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network and a veteran of national politics, media, and military service. She has worked on presidential and congressional campaigns, served in the U.S. Army Reserve, reported for Human Events on the Capitol Hill Press Corps, served as communications staff for a U.S. Senator and two U.S. Congressmen and spent twelve years as Chief of Staff to a Member of Congress.