IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3539 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 30 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 29), 2020 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Behavioral Interven3 tion Guidelines Act of 2020’’. 

4 SEC. 2. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION 

5 TEAMS. 

6 The Public Health Service Act is amended by insert7 ing after section 520G of such Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–38) 

8 the following new section: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 520H. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVEN10 TION TEAMS. 

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

12 the Assistant Secretary, shall develop and periodically up13 date— 

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

15 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu16 cation in establishing and using behavioral interven17 tion teams; and 

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

19 training providers to assist personnel in elementary 

20 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of higher 

21 education in implementing such best practices, in22 cluding with respect to training behavioral interven23 tion teams. 

24 ‘‘(b) ELEMENTS.—The best practices under sub25 section (a)(1) shall include guidance on the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) How behavioral intervention teams can op2 erate effectively from an evidence-based, objective 

3 perspective while protecting the constitutional and 

4 civil rights of individuals, including any individual of 

5 concern. 

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

7 to identify individuals of concern, implement inter8 ventions, and manage risk through the framework of 

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

10 as applicable. 

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

12 when assessing an individual of concern— 

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

14 threat-assessment rubrics; 

15 ‘‘(B) ensure that such teams— 

16 ‘‘(i) have adequately trained, diverse 

17 stakeholders with varied expertise; and 

18 ‘‘(ii) use cross validation by a wide19 range of individual perspectives on the 

20 team; and 

21 ‘‘(C) use violence risk assessment. 

22 ‘‘(4) How behavioral intervention teams can 

23 avoid— 

24 ‘‘(A) attempting to predict future behavior 

25 by the concept of pre-crime; 


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1 ‘‘(B) inappropriately using a mental health 

2 assessment; 

3 ‘‘(C) inappropriately limiting or restricting 

4 law enforcement’s jurisdiction over criminal 

5 matters; 

6 ‘‘(D) attempting to substitute the behav7 ioral intervention process in place of a criminal 

8 process, or impede a criminal process, when an 

9 individual of concern’s behavior has potential 

10 criminal implications; 

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

12 by failing to ensure that all applicable Federal 

13 and State privacy laws are fully complied with; 

14 or 

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

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

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

18 ‘‘(1) the Secretary of Education; 

19 ‘‘(2) the Director of the National Threat As20 sessment Center of the Department of Homeland 

21 Security; 

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

23 and 

24 ‘‘(4) as appropriate, relevant stakeholders in25 cluding— 


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1 ‘‘(A) teachers and other educators, prin2 cipals, school administrators, school board 

3 members, school psychologists, mental health 

4 professionals, and parents of elementary school 

5 and secondary school students; 

6 ‘‘(B) local law enforcement agencies and 

7 campus law enforcement administrators; 

8 ‘‘(C) mental health mobile crisis providers; 

9 ‘‘(D) child and adolescent psychiatrists; 

10 and 

11 ‘‘(E) other education and mental health 

12 professionals. 

13 ‘‘(d) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 

14 date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall pub15 lish the best practices under subsection (a)(1) and the list 

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

17 of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

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

19 provide technical assistance to institutions of higher edu20 cation, elementary schools, and secondary schools to assist 

21 such institutions and schools in implementing the best 

22 practices under subsection (a). 

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

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

25 means a team of qualified individuals who— 


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1 ‘‘(A) are responsible for identifying and as2 sessing individuals of concern; and 

3 ‘‘(B) develop and facilitate implementation 

4 of evidence-based interventions to mitigate the 

5 threat of harm to self or others posed by indi6 viduals of concern and address the mental and 

7 behavioral health needs of individuals of con8 cern to reduce such threat. 

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

10 and ‘secondary school’ have the meanings given to 

11 such terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and 

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

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

14 individual whose behavior indicates a potential 

15 threat to self or others. 

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

17 has the meaning given to such term in section 102 

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

19 1002). 

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

21 means an evaluation, primarily focused on diagnosis, 

22 determining the need for involuntary commitment, 

23 medication management, and on-going treatment 

24 recommendations. 


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1 ‘‘(6) The term ‘pre-crime’ means law-enforce2 ment efforts and strategies to deter crime by pre3 dicting when and where criminal activity will occur. 

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

5 to a broad determination of the potential risk of vio6 lence based on evidence-based literature.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 29, 

2020. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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