116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3539 
AN ACT 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Sec-
retary of Health and Human Services to develop best 
practices for the establishment and use of behavioral 
intervention teams at schools, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Behavioral Interven-
tion Guidelines Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION 
TEAMS. 
The Public Health Service Act is amended by insert-
ing after section 520G of such Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–38) 
the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 520H. BEST PRACTICES FOR BEHAVIORAL INTERVEN-
TION TEAMS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through 
the Assistant Secretary, shall develop and periodically up-
date— 
‘‘(1) best practices to assist elementary schools, 
secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu-
cation in establishing and using behavioral interven-
tion teams; and 
‘‘(2) a list of evidence-based threat assessment 
training providers to assist personnel in elementary 
schools, secondary schools, and institutions of higher 
education in implementing such best practices, in-
cluding with respect to training behavioral interven-
tion teams. 
‘‘(b) ELEMENTS.—The best practices under sub-
section (a)(1) shall include guidance on the following:
‘‘(1) How behavioral intervention teams can op-
erate effectively from an evidence-based, objective 
perspective while protecting the constitutional and 
civil rights of individuals, including any individual of 
concern. 
‘‘(2) The use of behavioral intervention teams 
to identify individuals of concern, implement inter-
ventions, and manage risk through the framework of 
the school’s or institution’s rules or code of conduct, 
as applicable. 
‘‘(3) How behavioral intervention teams can, 
when assessing an individual of concern— 
‘‘(A) seek training on evidence-based, 
threat-assessment rubrics; 
‘‘(B) ensure that such teams— 
‘‘(i) have adequately trained, diverse 
stakeholders with varied expertise; and 
‘‘(ii) use cross validation by a wide- 
range of individual perspectives on the 
team; and 
‘‘(C) use violence risk assessment. 
‘‘(4) How behavioral intervention teams can 
avoid— 
‘‘(A) attempting to predict future behavior 
by the concept of pre-crime;
‘‘(B) inappropriately using a mental health 
assessment; 
‘‘(C) inappropriately limiting or restricting 
law enforcement’s jurisdiction over criminal 
matters; 
‘‘(D) attempting to substitute the behav-
ioral intervention process in place of a criminal 
process, or impede a criminal process, when an 
individual of concern’s behavior has potential 
criminal implications; 
‘‘(E) endangering an individual’s privacy 
by failing to ensure that all applicable Federal 
and State privacy laws are fully complied with; 
or 
‘‘(F) creating school-to-prison pipelines. 
‘‘(c) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out subsection 
(a)(1), the Secretary shall consult with— 
‘‘(1) the Secretary of Education; 
‘‘(2) the Director of the National Threat As-
sessment Center of the Department of Homeland 
Security; 
‘‘(3) the Attorney General of the United States; 
and 
‘‘(4) as appropriate, relevant stakeholders in-
cluding—
‘‘(A) teachers and other educators, prin-
cipals, school administrators, school board 
members, school psychologists, mental health 
professionals, and parents of elementary school 
and secondary school students; 
‘‘(B) local law enforcement agencies and 
campus law enforcement administrators; 
‘‘(C) mental health mobile crisis providers; 
‘‘(D) child and adolescent psychiatrists; 
and 
‘‘(E) other education and mental health 
professionals. 
‘‘(d) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall pub-
lish the best practices under subsection (a)(1) and the list 
under subsection (a)(2) on a publicly accessible website 
of the Department of Health and Human Services. 
‘‘(e) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall 
provide technical assistance to institutions of higher edu-
cation, elementary schools, and secondary schools to assist 
such institutions and schools in implementing the best 
practices under subsection (a). 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘behavioral intervention team’ 
means a team of qualified individuals who—
‘‘(A) are responsible for identifying and as-
sessing individuals of concern; and 
‘‘(B) develop and facilitate implementation 
of evidence-based interventions to mitigate the 
threat of harm to self or others posed by indi-
viduals of concern and address the mental and 
behavioral health needs of individuals of con-
cern to reduce such threat. 
‘‘(2) The terms ‘elementary school’, ‘parent’, 
and ‘secondary school’ have the meanings given to 
such terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 
‘‘(3) The term ‘individual of concern’ means an 
individual whose behavior indicates a potential 
threat to self or others. 
‘‘(4) The term ‘institution of higher education’ 
has the meaning given to such term in section 102 
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1002). 
‘‘(5) The term ‘mental health assessment’ 
means an evaluation, primarily focused on diagnosis, 
determining the need for involuntary commitment, 
medication management, and on-going treatment 
recommendations.
‘‘(6) The term ‘pre-crime’ means law-enforce-
ment efforts and strategies to deter crime by pre-
dicting when and where criminal activity will occur. 
‘‘(7) The term ‘violence risk assessment’ refers 
to a broad determination of the potential risk of vio-
lence based on evidence-based literature.’’. 
Passed the House of Representatives September 29, 
2020. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3539 
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.