§290bb–39a Best Practices for Behavioral and Mental Health Intervention Teams

Summary

Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, working through the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and with input from the Secretary of Education, to send a report to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee about best ways to use behavioral and mental health intervention teams in K–12 schools and colleges. The report must look at the evidence behind those practices and, when appropriate, cover how teams can work well while protecting rights and privacy; how they can identify and help students whose behavior hurts learning or who may harm themselves or others; how teams can use proven interventions and get training; how teams should be made of trained, diverse experts who check each other’s work; and how teams can avoid unnecessary referrals to mental health services or police. The Secretary must consult many groups when making the report, including the Secretary of Education, the Director of the National Threat Assessment Center, the Attorney General, teachers and school leaders (including special education teachers), parents, local and campus law enforcement, privacy and civil rights experts, and mental health professionals. The report must be posted online in an accessible format. The law defines a behavioral and mental health intervention team as a trained, multi‑disciplinary group that finds, assesses, connects, and helps students with behavioral and mental health needs using evidence-based steps to reduce harm and support safe learning. It uses the usual legal meanings for terms like elementary school, secondary school, parent, and institution of higher education.