A Better Path Forward For Youth Mental Health

Will Burger
St. Petersburg, Florida

Dear Representative,

My name is Will Burger, and I am writing to urge you to support funding for mental fitness andresilience labs in Florida schools, particularly through innovative, brain-based programs likethose used at Genesis Brain Institute.

When I was nine years old, I suffered a brain injury. In the years that followed, I was diagnosedwith obsessive-compulsive disorder, double vision, and multiple learning challenges. Like manyfamilies, my parents did everything they could to help me. We sought out doctors, specialists,and psychologists, yet no one was able to truly address what was happening in my brain. Thecare available to us was largely reactive, not proactive.

What I needed, but did not have, was support within my school environment. A resource that understood brain health and mental fitness before problems escalated. Without that, years were lost to struggle, frustration, and unnecessary suffering.

It was not until much later in life, when I found a functional neurology clinic like Genesis Brain Institute, that my symptoms finally began to improve. For the first time, my care focused on how the brain actually functions and adapts. I often think about how different my childhood and education could have been if this type of support had been available early on.

This gap is even wider in rural areas of Florida, where access to mental health and neurological resources are extremely limited. Schools are uniquely positioned to be part of the solution by offering proactive mental fitness and resilience programs that support learning, emotional regulation, and long-term well-being.

Investing in mental fitness and resilience labs in schools is not just about responding to crises, it is about prevention, early intervention, and giving children the tools their brains need to thrive.

I respectfully ask you to consider supporting funding initiatives that make these resources accessible to students statewide, especially those in underserved and rural areas.

Thank you for your time and your commitment to the well-being of Florida’s children.

Sincerely,
Will Burger

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing in strong support of funding Mental Fitness Labs in our schools. I hold a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) and have been an educator for over 15 years, including four years as an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher. In that time, I have worked with countless students who struggle to regulate emotions, focus, and behavior—needs that, if left unsupported, often grow into much larger challenges.

I am also writing as a parent whose family has lived through the reality of childhood mental health struggles. My son underwent two and a half years of cancer treatment between the ages of seven and nine. When treatment ended, the cancer was gone, but the emotional and neurological impact remained. He became aggressive and defiant, struggled with memory, and lost motivation. We pursued psychiatric care, medication, and therapy, yet he continued to struggle. As a parent, it was heartbreaking to watch the child we knew slip further away despite doing everything we were told to do.

After participating in the Mental Fitness Lab program, we saw a change that had not occurred through years of traditional interventions. He became calmer, more regulated, and more like the kind, capable child he had been before his illness. That shift changed the trajectory of his life. He was able to complete high school with a 3.2 GPA and has since entered college, where he is currently earning a 4.0 GPA.

As an educator, I believe deeply in proactive supports that help students reset, refocus, and build resilience before behaviors escalate or students fall behind. Mental Fitness Labs provide that support without labeling or diagnosing children. They give students tools—and hope—at moments when they need it most.

I strongly urge you to support this funding. Programs like Mental Fitness Labs do not just improve schools; they change lives.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Constance Majorana, M.A.T.
Educator and Parent

Dear Florida Legislators,

My name is Rich Lawson. I am a father of ten children, six of whom were adopted from foster care. I am writing in strong support of initiatives such as the Genesis Brain Institute that seek to introduce brain-based healing and learning labs into Florida schools.

Like many parents, my interest in education is not theoretical. It is deeply personal. Children who come from hard places often carry more than difficult memories. Early trauma is now widely understood to affect how a child’s brain develops, particularly in areas related to emotional regulation, learning, attention, and stress response. These are not character flaws or discipline problems. They are neurological injuries formed during critical stages of development.

The encouraging truth is that the brain is not fixed. Modern neuroscience has shown that the brain is capable of healing and rewiring through safe, engaging, and intentional experiences. When children are given the right environments, tools, and guidance, they can build new neural pathways that support learning, resilience, and healthy relationships. This is not speculative science. It is the same foundational understanding that informs rehabilitation after physical brain injury and recovery after prolonged stress.

What excites me about the concept of brain labs in schools is that they meet children where they are. Rather than asking wounded children to simply behave better or try harder, these labs provide practical, developmentally appropriate ways for students to strengthen their brains through movement, play, regulation, and feedback. Making this work fun and accessible in a school setting removes stigma and allows healing to happen alongside learning.

From a parent’s perspective, this matters enormously. From a state perspective, it should matter even more. Children who learn how to regulate their emotions, focus their attention, and recover from stress become adults who are better prepared for work, relationships, and civic life.

Investing in brain-based healing early reduces long-term costs associated with academic failure, behavioral interventions, and mental health crises later in life.

Florida has an opportunity to lead by supporting innovative, science-informed approaches that strengthen children at the neurological level, not just academically. Approving and supporting the implementation of brain labs in schools is an investment in students who might otherwise be left behind, and in a future workforce that is healthier, more capable, and more resilient.

I am advocating for this not only for my own children, but for countless families across our state who want to see schools become places of restoration as well as education. I respectfully urge you to support the inclusion of brain-based healing labs in Florida schools and to help remove barriers to their implementation.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your commitment to the children of Florida.

Respectfully,

Rich Lawson
Father and Florida Parent Advocate

NANCY LUCAS, M.Ed. Apollo Beach, Florida | NancyLucas1234@gmail.com | 305-393-6413 January 2026

To Whom it May Concern:

As an educator in the classroom, a mother of four, and a youth advocate for more than twenty years, I ask that you receive this letter above all else, from a mother’s heart.

Of our four children, two have required extraordinary mental-health and behavioral support. Some of their challenges were identifiable early, thanks to attentive professionals. Other aspects were confusing, painful, and deeply misunderstood.

What appeared to be an intelligent child failing school, resisting authority, lacking motivation, or simply “being a teenager” was not a character issue, nor a parenting failure. It was his brain. For several years, we knew something was not right but we did not know why.

The first brain scan told the entire story. Our son was suffering from brain damage. What had been labeled as severe depression, moderate oppositional defiant disorder, and moderate anxiety finally made sense. Everything we were doing, both as parents and as educators, was failing not because we lacked effort or care, but because we were addressing symptoms not the underlying neurological cause.

That is why I am writing to ask you to advocate for the hundreds of beautiful children in your care. Had a mental fitness lab or early brain-health screening been available in school, this would have been discovered much sooner. My son’s self-esteem could have been preserved. Years of discipline, frustration, and shame might have been avoided. Instead of feeling helpless, spending nights on suicide watch, we could have had clarity, direction, and peace of mind.

In our case, the cause was brain swelling related to COVID. Although our son was hospitalized and treated, we had no way of knowing the long-term neurological effects. The scan shows his eyes literally shaking in their sockets. That movement resembles someone decades older who has suffered a stroke. With limited blood flow to the motivation centers of his brain and eyes that struggle to maintain focus,
traditional academic expectations were not just difficult, they were neurologically unrealistic.

Accommodations helped him participate in discussion, where he excelled. But accommodations do not treat depression. They do not heal brain injury. And they do not restore brain health.

I urge you to consider a school-wide screening using an approved, evidence-based questionnaire and to provide students access to a mental fitness lab or equivalent brain-health support. If we, educated, drug- and alcohol-free, engaged, and deeply caring parents, missed this with our own child, how many families are navigating the same struggle with fewer resources and nowhere to turn?

We believe education is a noble profession with the power to transform lives and unlock human potential. Schools are the single greatest point of access to our society’s future. Once children pass through your halls, the window to influence brain health during this most critical season of development closes.

Please help us catch what cannot be seen before another child believes they are broken, lazy, or beyond hope, when what they truly need is understanding, awareness, resources and support.

With deep respect and urgency,
Nancy Lucas