Texas governor moves to ensure access to mental health services for Uvalde children after school shooting

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent a letter to his state’s Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) directing the agency to make sure that all children in Uvalde, Texas, have access to behavioral health resources in the wake of a mass shooting at a local elementary school. 

In a letter sent on Wednesday, Abbott requested that Texas HHSC executive director Cecile Young use all available resources to ensure mental health support services are available to Uvalde children.

Abbott also asked Young to work with the state’s Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium in this effort.

“As these families begin to rebuild their lives, it is essential that the children of Uvalde have access to mental health treatment,” reads the letter. “The Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has jurisdiction over behavioral health services on behalf of the State.”

He noted that the state’s legislature appropriated $7.78 billion for behavioral health, including $100 million for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, in 2019 and $8.4 billion, including $113 million for the consortium, in 2021.

“Given this substantial capacity, I am asking that you use all available resources to work with families to provide behavioral health services to every child in Uvalde who desires support,” Abbott continued. “Although we cannot erase what happened in Uvalde, we can ensure, through the coordinated efforts of HHSC, TEA, and other organizations, that every child in that community gets the support they need.”

This comes roughly two weeks after the massacre at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, where nineteen schoolchildren and two of their teachers were killed after a gunman opened fire inside of a fourth-grade classroom. 

Uvalde resident and actor Matthew McConaughey made an emotional plea for gun reform legislation during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, after he met with lawmakers on both sides to discuss this issue. 

“We want secure and safe schools, and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn guns,” McConaughey said at the press briefing.