Title: Suicide and Threat Assessment Nationally Dedicated to Universal Prevention Act of 2019
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Suicide and Threat Assessment Nationally Dedicated to Universal Prevention Act of 2019
This bill requires state and tribal education agencies that receive grant funding for priority mental-health needs to establish and implement (1) evidence-based suicide awareness and prevention training policies, and (2) school threat assessment teams. School threat assessment teams consist of two or more school personnel who are trained to identify, assess, and respond to threats of suicide and interpersonal violence.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2599 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2599

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require State educational 
agencies and tribal educational agencies receiving funds under section 
  520A of such Act to establish and implement a school-based student 
  suicide awareness and prevention training policy and school threat 
            assessment team policy, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 8, 2019

      Mr. Peters (for himself, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Deutch, and Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require State educational 
agencies and tribal educational agencies receiving funds under section 
  520A of such Act to establish and implement a school-based student 
  suicide awareness and prevention training policy and school threat 
            assessment team policy, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Suicide and Threat Assessment 
Nationally Dedicated to Universal Prevention Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Since 2010, suicide has been the second-leading cause 
        of death for young people ages 10-24. In 2016, 6,159 young 
        people ages 10-24 completed suicide.
            (2) Based on the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in this section 
        referred to as ``CDC''), 7.4 percent of youth in grades 9-12 
        reported that they made at least one suicide attempt in the 
        past 12 months.
            (3) While there is no complete count of suicide attempts in 
        the United States, CDC data suggests that for every reported 
        suicide death, approximately 11.4 people visit a hospital for 
        self-harm-related injuries.
            (4) In 2016, suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death 
        overall in the United States, with over 44,000 people 
        completing suicide, and there were more than twice as many 
        suicides in the United States as there were homicides.
            (5) Youth often display warning signs and signals before 
        harming themselves or others. Research shows that 70 percent of 
        those who complete suicide tell someone of their plans or give 
        another warning sign, and 80 percent of school shooters tell 
        someone of their plans.
            (6) According to the CDC, the rates of suicide among 
        American Indians and Alaska Natives have been increasing since 
        2003 and are the highest of any racial or ethnic group in the 
        United States. In addition, recent studies of CDC data from 
        2001 through 2015 show that suicide rates for Black children 
        aged 5 through 12 were roughly two times higher than those of 
        similarly aged White children.
            (7) Research has shown that evidence-based school threat 
        assessment teams reduce suicide; interpersonal violence, 
        bullying, and aggression; school staff anxiety about violence; 
        and expulsion and suspension rates. Evidence-based school 
        threat assessment teams have been shown to increase the 
        willingness of students to seek help for threats of violence 
        and mental illness, use of school counseling, and parental 
        involvement.
            (8) Research has shown that evidence-based school threat 
        assessment teams can lead to a reduction in racial disparities 
        between White, Black, and Hispanic students in school 
        disciplinary outcomes and legal actions. Additionally, research 
        shows that evidence-based school threat assessment teams can 
        help combat the school-to-prison pipeline.

SEC. 3. STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION TRAINING AND TEAMS.

    (a) In General.--Title V of the Public Health Service Act is 
amended by inserting after section 520A of such Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb-
32) the following:

``SEC. 520B. STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION TRAINING AND 
              TEAMS.

    ``(a) In General.--As a condition on receipt of funds under section 
520A, each State educational agency and tribal educational agency that 
receives such funds, directly or through a State or Indian Tribe, 
shall--
            ``(1) establish and implement--
                    ``(A) a school-based student suicide awareness and 
                prevention training policy; and
                    ``(B) a school threat assessment team policy; and
            ``(2) collect and report information in accordance with 
        subsection (d).
    ``(b) School-Based Student Suicide Awareness and Prevention 
Training Policy.--A school-based student suicide awareness and 
prevention training policy implemented pursuant to subsection (a)--
            ``(1) shall be evidence-based;
            ``(2) shall provide evidence-based training to students in 
        grades 6 through 12 regarding--
                    ``(A) suicide education and awareness, including 
                warning signs of self-harm or suicidal ideation;
                    ``(B) methods that students can use to seek help 
                for themselves and others; and
                    ``(C) student resources for suicide awareness and 
                prevention;
            ``(3) shall provide for retraining of such students every 
        school year;
            ``(4) may last for such period as the State educational 
        agency or tribal educational agency involved determines to be 
        appropriate; and
            ``(5) may be implemented through any delivery method, 
        including in-person trainings, digital trainings, or train-the-
        trainer models.
    ``(c) School Threat Assessment Team Policy.--A school threat 
assessment team policy implemented pursuant to subsection (a) shall--
            ``(1) be evidence-based;
            ``(2) identify and establish a school threat assessment 
        team within each school, consisting of two or more school 
        personnel, with the team designated to provide triage, and 
        serve as a liaison to intervention, for all reported threats of 
        suicide and interpersonal violence within the school;
            ``(3) provide evidence-based training to each such team on 
        how to identify, assess, and respond to threats of suicide and 
        interpersonal violence, including training on--
                    ``(A) identification of threats, signs, and 
                behaviors that could result in harm towards one's self 
                or others;
                    ``(B) evaluation of the seriousness of the threat 
                or danger posed;
                    ``(C) intervention to reduce the risk of violence; 
                and
                    ``(D) followup to assess intervention results;
            ``(4) provide for retraining of the members of each such 
        team no less frequently than every 3 school years;
            ``(5) establish guidelines to ensure that--
                    ``(A) where a credible threat is identified, the 
                response conforms with any applicable State and school 
                disciplinary policies; and
                    ``(B) disciplinary action is not applied 
                disproportionately to students on the basis of race, 
                color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability; 
                and
            ``(6) create procedures and protocols for coordinating with 
        local law enforcement, State reporting websites, and tip lines.
    ``(d) Collection of Information and Reporting.--Each State 
educational agency and tribal educational agency that receives funds 
under section 520A shall, with respect to each school served by the 
agency, collect and report to the Secretary the following information:
            ``(1) For the school-based student suicide awareness and 
        prevention training policy required by subsection (a)(1)(A):
                    ``(A) The number of student trainings conducted.
                    ``(B) The number of students trained, disaggregated 
                by age and grade level.
                    ``(C) The number of help-seeking behaviors 
                undertaken by students after implementation of such 
                policy.
                    ``(D) The number and type of threats of suicide, 
                mental illness, or interpersonal violence reported by 
                students.
            ``(2) For the school threat assessment team policy required 
        by subsection (a)(1)(B):
                    ``(A) The number and type of threats of suicide, 
                mental illness, or interpersonal violence reported.
                    ``(B) The number of suicide attempts and 
                completions in the school.
                    ``(C) The method of reporting within the school a 
                threat of suicide, mental illness, or interpersonal 
                violence, such as in-person reporting, electronic 
                reporting, and anonymous reporting.
                    ``(D) The number of false reports received.
                    ``(E) The response to each threat reported.
                    ``(F) The demographic information of the students 
                being reported or self-reporting, disaggregated by age, 
                grade level, gender, race, and ethnicity.
                    ``(G) The point of contact for each school's team.
    ``(e) Evidence-Based Program Listing.--The Secretary of Health and 
Human Services shall coordinate with the Secretary of Education to make 
publicly available the policies established by State educational 
agencies and tribal educational agencies pursuant to this section and 
the training that is available to students and teams pursuant to such 
policies, including identification of whether such training is 
available to trainees at no cost.
    ``(f) Implementation Timeline.--A State educational agency or 
tribal educational agency shall establish and begin implementation of 
the policies required by subsection (a)(1) not later than the beginning 
of the third fiscal year following the date of enactment of this 
section for which the agency receives funds under section 520A.
    ``(g) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `evidence-based' has the meaning given to 
        such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 
        Education Act of 1965.
            ``(2) The term `State educational agency' has the meaning 
        given to such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965.
            ``(3) The term `tribal educational agency' has the meaning 
        given to such term in section 6132 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965.''.
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