Title: Student Mental Health

Summary: Requiring district school boards to adopt policies relating to student mental health for grades 9 through 12; requiring that such policies include access to specified professionals in the school setting, access to a continuum of services during the school day, and procedures to aid a student experiencing a mental health crisis; requiring such procedures to ensure appropriate care, minimize the use of law enforcement and hospitalization, involve the use of mobile crisis response services that meet certain criteria, include a method to request assistance discreetly, and include methods for engaging the student and his or her family in continuing treatment, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to student mental health; amending s. 1006.07, F.S.; requiring district school boards to adopt policies relating to student mental health for grades through 12; requiring that such policies include access to specified professionals in the school setting, access to a continuum of services during the school day, and procedures to aid a student experiencing a mental health crisis; requiring such procedures to ensure appropriate care, minimize the use of law enforcement and hospitalization, involve the use of mobile crisis response services that meet certain criteria, include a method to request assistance discreetly, and include methods for engaging the student and his or her family in continuing treatment; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Subsection (10) is added to section 1006.07, Florida Statutes, to read: 1006.07 District school board duties relating to student discipline and school safety. The district school board shall provide for the proper accounting for all students, for the attendance and control of students at school, and for proper attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the welfare of students, including: (10)   STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH. Adopt policies to provide mental health assistance to students in grades through 12. These policies must include all of the following: (a)   Access to mental health professionals in the school setting. Such professionals must include therapists, counselors, psychologists, and social workers. (b)   A continuum of services available during the school day to facilitate better access to such services and improved outcomes. (c)   Procedures to aid a student experiencing a mental health crisis on a school campus. Such procedures must: 1.   Ensure that the student receives an appropriate level of care and minimize the use of law enforcement and hospitalization. 2.   Include the use of mobile crisis response services, as defined in s. 394.455. Such response services must be operated or contracted for by a district school board, county government, or municipal government and be able to arrive at a school campus within hour after being called. 3.   Include a method for an educator to discreetly request assistance from a mobile crisis response service. 4.   Include methods for engaging the student and the student s family in continuing mental health treatment, if appropriate, designed to maintain the student s stability and status in school without the use of hospitalization or in patient treatment. Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.