Progress continues after break
This week, Senate committees heard three of my bills that focus on two important issues in our state: unnecessary regulations that discourage job creation in our state and outdated practices that unfairly create winners and losers.
As far as fostering an environment that welcomes needed professionals, our state encourages many students and young professionals to take their needed skills and knowledge to other states. One way our state does this is by regulation. Missouri currently requires superfluous hours and months in training and education — especially during a student’s postdoctoral years — for someone to be initially licensed as a psychologist. These extra hours might have been justifiable decades ago when students completed a relatively small amount of hours during their graduate years. Today, however, students complete thousands of hours during their graduate years. And unlike some other states, which have adjusted their requirements to reflect students’ increase in graduate training, Missouri requires more than enough postdoctoral hours. (At some point, the extra hours of training give no additional advantage to Missouri students over students in other states.) Because students cannot afford to wait to complete Missouri’s archaic licensure requirements, many students who were educated here in Missouri seek employment outside the state. This phenomenon has created a psychologist shortage in Missouri.
Senate Bill 397 addresses Missouri’s psychologist workforce crisis and would modernize the state’s model that has been around since the mid-20th Century. On Monday, the Committee on Professional Registration heard SB 397 and the testimonies from the bill’s supporters, including a Missouri psychologist who talked about the lack of psychologists in Missouri to meet the state’s demand. I look forward to this bill moving out of committee and discussing this issue with my colleagues on the Senate floor.
Also this week, the Committee on Seniors, Families and Children heard two of my bills, SBs 301 and 377. These bills address outdated practices that contribute to heartbreaking results and an unfair judicial system. For example, many long-term facilities are not required by state law to report any suspicions of sexual assault of a resident to law enforcement officials. Reporting such events of suspected sexual assault to law enforcement in a timely manner can potentially save lives and give law enforcement officials the needed information to identify the offenders. Senate Bill 301 would require that sexual-assault victims and their families have the assistance of law enforcement during this emotional time.
The Committee also heard SB 377 and testimonies from many Missourians in favor of SB 377. In many divorce cases that involve kids, judges have to decide the custodial rights of both parents. Often, both parents have close relationships with their children, both parents have amicable relations, the children enjoy the company of both parents and there are no apparent threats to the children or one of the parents. Despite this, many judges throughout the state apply unequal parenting time. Hesitant to overturn tradition, many judges grant one parent weekly visitation rights during only one weekday and every other weekend. This sort of custodial determination has many consequences, including having an initial bias toward one parent (after all, one parent will have more time than the other) even if both are good parents, contributing to an unequal amount of parental familiarity, and affecting a child’s behavior. Senate Bill 377 would attenuate any biases that judges have by encouraging judges to presume that, in absence of factors like the child’s wishes, the child’s mental and physical health, and presence of domestic violence, equal access to both parents is in the child’s best interest.
Our children are our future. We should help make their bonding with their parents easier and welcome their efforts to contribute to our great state. And I believe that taking these steps to encourage our young professionals to stay in our state, and to reform our law enforcement and judicial systems to prioritize the families’ interests will create a stronger and better Missouri.
I urge you to contact me with any questions or concerns you have about state government so that I can better represent you during the 2017 legislative session.
Contact Me
I always appreciate hearing your comments, opinions, and concerns. Please feel free to contact me in Jefferson City at (573) 751-2459. You may write me at Wayne Wallingford, Missouri Senate, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or email at wayne.wallingford@senate.mo.gov or www.senate.mo.gov/wallingford.
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