PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Starting next week, a Palm Beach County hospital will no longer accept patients under the age of 12 under the Baker Act, underscoring the critical need for mental health resources for children in the county.

Florida’s Baker Act is a law that allows people to be involuntarily detained in a psychiatric facility if they pose a threat to themselves or others.

HCA Florida JFK North Hospital in West Palm Beach is the only facility in Palm Beach County that accepts Baker Act patients under the age of 18, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. According to the hospital’s spokesperson, Narupa Baldeosingh, the hospital will no longer accept it. The Baker Act takes effect on November 22 for patients under the age of 12.

“These are young kids in our system who are in a huge crisis and really need support,” said Erica Whitfield, a Palm Beach County school board member. “We’ve been using (JFK North) as a partner for many years. They’ve been a great resource for us to make sure we have a place to send students who are really in high-level crisis.”

According to data provided by Whitfield, there were 20 children under the age of 12 enrolled in Baker Acted from Palm Beach County schools in the 2023-2024 school year; that number was 16 the previous school year, when the district began tracking more comprehensive data.

Not everyone is complaining about the change at JFK North.

“I think it’s great,” said Jamie Seiler, whose 14-year-old son now attends a private school in Palm Beach County.

In 2019, when Seiler’s son was nine years old, he was led out of Acreage Pines Elementary School in handcuffs.

“This has been a long road for five years and it’s never over,” Seiler said. “He still refuses to talk about it.”

Seiler’s son was diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. He was receiving treatment and had a behavioral health specialist with him at school the day he was removed from class without his mother’s knowledge.

“He was upset in class. He escalated the situation,” Seiler said. “The (specialist) who was working with him took him outside and sat him on the desk in the office, he calmed down. But I think by then the school resource officer had already been called, so he was calm as the officer walked into the room but they still tried to impersonate Baker.”

Seiler said he was at work when the school called him. His son was already on his way to JFK North.

He ran there to meet her.

“He was hunched over with his arms on his legs, swaying and saying, ‘I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home,'” Seiler said. “(It’s) heartbreaking.”

Patients can be detained for 72 hours under the Baker Act if the doctor says it is necessary. Not so in Seilers’ case.

“You know, we were under surveillance. The doctor came and talked to him for a few minutes about cars. The doctor looked at me and said, ‘Why are you here?'” Seiler said.

Shahar Pasch is an education attorney who represented the Seilers in a complaint filed in 2020 against the Palm Beach County School District.

“I don’t think putting a child in the back of a police car and placing them in a psychiatric hospital — some of their first time away from home — is an appropriate solution,” Pasch said. in question. “And I think that adds trauma to the child who is already in crisis.”

During the complaint, Pasch said “numerous students from the school were being Baker Acted.”

Pasch believes the Baker Act is often used incorrectly as a way to discipline children who are defiant in the classroom but are not homicidal or suicidal.

The case was eventually settled, and Pasch credits the school district’s actions since then.

“They’ve made their policies more robust, not just with the Baker Acts, but with mental health in general,” Pasch said. “They hired more staff on school grounds. They did more training for staff.”

“I appreciate him saying that,” Whitfield said. “We don’t want kids to have to go through that. It’s not a matter of choosing between sending them there. I would like to have every resource available so we don’t have to do that.”

Pasch and Whitfield agree that there is a dire need for additional mental health resources for children in Palm Beach County.

“I want the community to see this as an opportunity to provide comprehensive services and support these families, rather than lamenting the loss of a bed,” Pasch said. he said.

Baldeosingh said JFK North is making changes to increase the number of behavioral health beds available to children ages 12 to 17 — “the largest population among teenagers who need this level of support,” he said — and that the hospital will still care for anyone who comes to the emergency room.

“We will work closely with our Palm Beach community behavioral health providers, who provide similar behavioral health services, and nearby hospitals in Broward, Martin and St. Lucie counties to support a seamless transition to meet the needs of children and their families throughout the region,” Baldeosingh told WPTV by email. he said in a statement sent.

Statewide use of the Baker Act in children under 18 has decreased slightly since the 2019-2020 school year, when Seiler’s son was led out of school in handcuffs, according to data maintained by DCF.

In Palm Beach County, children receive Baker Acted at about half the rate they received that school year.

The data includes district and out-of-school children and does not specify exact ages.