I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3539 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health 

and Human Services to develop best practices for the establishment 

and use of behavioral intervention teams at schools, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 27, 2019 

Mr. FERGUSON (for himself, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. KENNEDY, and Mr. PANETTA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop best 

practices for the establishment and use of behavioral 

intervention teams at schools, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Behavioral Interven5 tion Guidelines Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION 

2 TEAMS. 

3 The Public Health Service Act is amended by insert4 ing after section 520G of such Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–38) 

5 the following new section: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 520H. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVEN7 TION TEAMS. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through 

9 the Assistant Secretary, shall develop and periodically up10 date— 

11 ‘‘(1) best practices to assist elementary schools, 

12 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu13 cation in establishing and using behavioral interven14 tion teams; and 

15 ‘‘(2) a list of evidence-based threat assessment 

16 training providers to assist personnel in elementary 

17 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of higher 

18 education in implementing such best practices, in19 cluding with respect to training behavioral interven20 tion teams. 

21 ‘‘(b) ELEMENTS.—The best practices under sub22 section (a)(1) shall include guidance on the following: 

23 ‘‘(1) How behavioral intervention teams can op24 erate effectively from an evidence-based, objective 

25 perspective while protecting the constitutional and 


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1 civil rights of individuals, including any individual of 

2 concern. 

3 ‘‘(2) The use of behavioral intervention teams 

4 to identify individuals of concern, implement inter5 ventions, and manage risk through the framework of 

6 the school’s or institution’s rules or code of conduct, 

7 as applicable. 

8 ‘‘(3) How behavioral intervention teams can, 

9 when assessing an individual of concern— 

10 ‘‘(A) seek training on evidence-based, 

11 threat-assessment rubrics; 

12 ‘‘(B) ensure that such teams— 

13 ‘‘(i) have adequately trained, diverse 

14 stakeholders with varied expertise; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) use cross validation by a wide16 range of individual perspectives on the 

17 team; and 

18 ‘‘(C) use violence risk assessment. 

19 ‘‘(4) How behavioral intervention teams can 

20 avoid— 

21 ‘‘(A) attempting to predict future behavior 

22 by the concept of pre-crime; 

23 ‘‘(B) inappropriately using a mental health 

24 assessment; 


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1 ‘‘(C) inappropriately limiting or restricting 

2 law enforcement’s jurisdiction over criminal 

3 matters; 

4 ‘‘(D) attempting to substitute the behav5 ioral intervention process in place of a criminal 

6 process, or impede a criminal process, when an 

7 individual of concern’s behavior has potential 

8 criminal implications; 

9 ‘‘(E) endangering an individual’s privacy 

10 by failing to ensure that all applicable Federal 

11 and State privacy laws are fully complied with; 

12 or 

13 ‘‘(F) creating school-to-prison pipelines. 

14 ‘‘(c) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out subsection 

15 (a)(1), the Secretary shall consult with— 

16 ‘‘(1) the Secretary of Education; 

17 ‘‘(2) the Director of the National Threat As18 sessment Center of the Department of Homeland 

19 Security; 

20 ‘‘(3) the Attorney General of the United States; 

21 ‘‘(4) teachers and other educators, principals, 

22 school administrators, school board members, school 

23 psychologists, mental health professionals, and par24 ents of elementary school and secondary school stu25 dents; 


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1 ‘‘(5) local law enforcement agencies and campus 

2 law enforcement administrators; 

3 ‘‘(6) mental health mobile crisis providers; 

4 ‘‘(7) child and adolescent psychiatrists; and 

5 ‘‘(8) other education and mental health profes6 sionals as the Secretary deems appropriate. 

7 ‘‘(d) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 1 year after the 

8 date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall pub9 lish the best practices under subsection (a)(1) and the list 

10 under subsection (a)(2) on a publicly accessible website 

11 of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

12 ‘‘(e) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 

13 provide technical assistance to institutions of higher edu14 cation, elementary schools, and secondary schools to assist 

15 such institutions and schools in implementing the best 

16 practices under subsection (a). 

17 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

18 ‘‘(1) The term ‘behavioral intervention team’ 

19 means a team of qualified individuals who— 

20 ‘‘(A) are responsible for identifying and as21 sessing individuals of concern; and 

22 ‘‘(B) develop and facilitate implementation 

23 of evidence-based interventions to mitigate the 

24 threat of harm to self or others posed by indi25 viduals of concern and address the mental and 


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1 behavioral health needs of individuals of con2 cern to reduce such threat. 

3 ‘‘(2) The terms ‘elementary school’, ‘parent’, 

4 and ‘secondary school’ have the meanings given to 

5 such terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and 

6 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

7 ‘‘(3) The term ‘individual of concern’ means an 

8 individual whose behavior indicates a potential 

9 threat to self or others. 

10 ‘‘(4) The term ‘institution of higher education’ 

11 has the meaning given to such term in section 102 

12 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

13 1002). 

14 ‘‘(5) The term ‘mental health assessment’ 

15 means an evaluation, primarily focused on diagnosis, 

16 determining the need for involuntary commitment, 

17 medication management, and on-going treatment 

18 recommendations. 

19 ‘‘(6) The term ‘pre-crime’ means law-enforce20 ment efforts and strategies to deter crime by pre21 dicting when and where criminal activity will occur. 

22 ‘‘(7) The term ‘violence risk assessment’ refers 

23 to a broad determination of the potential risk of vio24 lence based on evidence-based literature.’’. 

Æ 


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