From Institutionalization to Inclusion: Why Today’s Mental Health Referrals Feel Like a Step Backward

There was a time — not so long ago — when children with disabilities were not educated in public schools at all.

They were labeled as “unfit,” “unmanageable,” or “too difficult.”

They were institutionalized, hidden away from their communities, and denied the basic right to learn alongside their peers.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was created to end that.

To guarantee that every child — regardless of disability — would be given a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).

It was meant to replace exclusion with inclusion, and fear with dignity.

Yet today, as advocates and parents, we are watching history try to rewrite itself — this time, under the language of “mental health.”

When “Mental Health Referral” Feels Like Regression

Across Kentucky and beyond, families of children with disabilities are being blindsided by school-initiated referrals for mental health “crisis” assessments.

These referrals are often made without parental consent, without qualified evaluation, and without recognizing the child’s disability-related needs — directly contradicting the protections IDEA was built to ensure.

When a child with ADHD, autism, or emotional regulation challenges exhibits behavior that is clearly a manifestation of their disability, it is not a psychiatric crisis.

It is a call for support, understanding, and appropriate intervention — not hospitalization.

But instead of conducting Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs) or implementing Positive Behavioral Supports (PBIS), schools are increasingly relying on crisis referrals — effectively outsourcing their responsibility under IDEA.

This isn’t progress.

It’s a rebranding of exclusion.

And it’s frighteningly reminiscent of the very practices IDEA was written to abolish.

Fear as a Tool of Control

Parents today describe a familiar kind of fear — the same kind that families once felt when the state could remove their children under the guise of “treatment.”

When parents are told that their child is being referred to a crisis stabilization unit,

when they are threatened with reports to child protective services for disagreeing with the school’s decisions,

when they are left out of the process entirely —

this is not collaboration.

This is coercion.

IDEA was designed to prevent unilateral decision-making — to ensure that parents are equal members of the IEP team, and that no educational or psychological decision is made without their informed consent (34 C.F.R. § 300.9; § 300.503).

Threats, fear tactics, and rushed crisis referrals violate both the letter and the spirit of that law.

A Historical Echo We Cannot Ignore

It is devastatingly easy to forget that institutionalization wasn’t an ancient practice — it was within living memory.

Many of today’s grandparents remember a time when children with disabilities simply disappeared from classrooms.

IDEA changed that.

It mandated that schools see the whole child, not just their behavior.

It required that children be taught, not managed; supported, not silenced.

So when schools bypass parental consent, when they label disability-related behaviors as “mental health emergencies,” and when they use fear to control rather than compassion to support — they aren’t just violating procedure. They are unraveling decades of civil rights progress for children with disabilities.

Parents Are Not Obstacles — They Are Equal Partners

Parents today are not “overreacting.” They are responding to a system that once silenced them — and seems to be trying to again.

When a parent feels fear, anger, or distrust after being threatened with referrals or agency involvement, it’s not defiance.

It’s a trauma response — a reflection of how deeply this system has failed to uphold the trust IDEA was meant to build.

IDEA’s foundation is collaboration, not control.

It is consent, not coercion.

It is inclusion, not institutionalization.

A Call Back to the Spirit of IDEA

If we truly believe in IDEA — if we believe in inclusion, equity, and the dignity of all children — then we must stop this cycle of disguised exclusion.

Referrals made out of misunderstanding, fear, or convenience are not acts of care.

They are acts of regression.

Schools must remember their role: to educate, not to pathologize. , To support not to intimidate.

And to include parents as partners — not problems.

Because when families are silenced and children are retraumatized, we are no longer serving education.

We are serving fear.