§290bb–33 Student suicide awareness and prevention training

Summary

The Secretary must give priority for funds under section 290bb–32 to State, local, or Tribal education agencies that already have, or plan to put in place, student suicide awareness and prevention training for secondary schools. To get priority, a plan must set up a school-based training policy, involve stakeholders like principals, teachers, parents, and Tribal officials and use resources from the Suicide Prevention Technical Assistance Center when helpful, and agree to collect and report certain information. The policy must be evidence-based, respectful of different cultures and languages, and offer evidence-based training for students in grades 6–12 that works with school mental health services. The training must teach about suicide prevention and risk signs, how students can get help, and available resources, and it must include periodic retraining. The Secretary may consider local suicide rates and the cost of putting the policy in place when deciding who gets priority. Agencies that win priority funding must report aggregated, privacy-protected counts of trainings (and how they were delivered), numbers of students trained by age and grade, and the number of help-seeking reports after the policy starts. The Secretary will share the policies publicly and work with the Secretaries of Education and the Interior to offer technical help and spread best practices, including through the Technical Assistance Center. By September 30, 2024, the Secretary must report to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce how many recipients put these training policies in place and summarize the reported data. Definitions: “evidence-based,” “local educational agency,” “State educational agency,” and “Tribal educational agency” are defined by cross-reference to Title 20.