Title: HEAL Act of 2022
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Helping Education After Loss Act of 2022 or the HEAL Act of 2022
This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to award grants to eligible entities to fund additional school-based mental health providers and acute crisis response activities. An eligible entity is a local educational agency that serves a school that has experienced a violent or traumatic crisis.
ED must, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, conduct a special resource study of communities that have experienced a violent or traumatic crisis.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3848 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3848

    To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to fund 
    additional school-based mental health providers to help reduce 
 psychological harm, and assist with the return to adaptive coping in 
    schools following a violent or traumatic crisis, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 16, 2022

  Mr. Peters (for himself and Ms. Stabenow) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to fund 
    additional school-based mental health providers to help reduce 
 psychological harm, and assist with the return to adaptive coping in 
    schools following a violent or traumatic crisis, 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 ``Helping Education After Loss Act of 
2022'' or the ``HEAL Act of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

     Congress finds the following:
            (1) On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, a student at Oxford High 
        School killed and injured several students with a handgun 
        loaded with a high-capacity magazine.
            (2) Children exposed to violence, injury, and other 
        potentially traumatic events are at risk for developing 
        traumatic stress reactions, including as follows:
                    (A) The National Center for PTSD estimates that 28 
                percent of people who have witnessed a mass shooting 
                develop PTSD and 1/3 develop acute stress disorder.
                    (B) While some survivors only experience temporary 
                symptoms, others will be symptomatic for a much longer 
                period of time and even develop chronic psychiatric 
                disorders.
                    (C) Both short-term and long-term impairments can 
                cause severe distress and have profound effects on 
                academic achievement and the social and emotional 
                growth of impacted students.
            (3) Youth with access to mental health services in school-
        based health centers are 10 times more likely to seek care for 
        mental health or substance abuse than youth without access.
            (4) The leading counseling, guidance, and mental health 
        organizations, including the American School Counselor 
        Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, 
        the National Association of Social Workers, and the School 
        Social Work Association of America, recommend that schools 
        maintain--
                    (A) a maximum student to school counselor ratio of 
                250 to 1;
                    (B) a maximum student to school psychologist ratio 
                of 500 to 1; and
                    (C) a maximum student to school social worker ratio 
                of 250 to 1.
            (5) According to the Education Trust, nearly 1 in 5 
        students do not have access to a counselor in their school at 
        all, and many of those students have only limited access to 
        other school support staff, such as school psychologists or 
        social workers.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Acute crisis response activity.--The term ``acute 
        crisis response activity'' means an activity in response to an 
        acute crisis, including services to provide immediate trauma 
        intervention, advocacy, crisis intervention, death 
        notification, and victim and survivor assistance.
            (2) Eligible entity.--The term ``eligible entity'' means a 
        local educational agency that serves a school that has 
        experienced a violent or traumatic crisis.
            (3) Local educational agency.--The term ``local educational 
        agency'' means a public board of education or other public 
        authority legally constituted within a State for either 
        administrative control or direction of, or to perform a service 
        function for, public elementary schools or secondary schools in 
        a city, county, township, school district, or other political 
        subdivision of a State, or of or for a combination of school 
        districts or counties that is recognized in a State as an 
        administrative agency for its public elementary schools or 
        secondary schools.
            (4) School-based mental health provider.--The term 
        ``school-based mental health provider'' means a State-licensed 
        or State-certified school counselor, school psychologist, 
        school social worker, community-based mental health provider 
        organization, or other State-licensed or State-certified mental 
        health professional qualified under State law to provide mental 
        health services to children and adolescents.
            (5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Education.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ACUTE CRISIS RESPONSE GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) Program Authorized.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall award non-competitive 
        grants from allotments under paragraph (2) to eligible entities 
        to fund additional full-time, part-time, and contractual 
        school-based mental health providers and acute crisis response 
        activities in order to help the eligible entity respond to the 
        violent or traumatic crisis.
            (2) Allotments.--From amounts appropriated under section 6 
        for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall allot to each eligible 
        entity an amount that--
                    (A) is of sufficient size and scope to enable the 
                eligible entity to respond to the violent or traumatic 
                crisis; and
                    (B) is not more than $250,000 for the fiscal year.
    (b) Duration.--A grant awarded under this section shall be for not 
longer than a 2-year period, and may be renewed for an additional 2-
year period, at the Secretary's discretion.
    (c) Notice of Eligibility.--Not later than 30 days after the date 
of a violent or traumatic crisis that affects a school community, the 
Secretary shall notify the eligible entity that serves such school of 
the availability of grant awards under this section.
    (d) Application.--An eligible entity that desires to receive a 
grant under this section shall submit an application to the Secretary 
at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the 
Secretary may require.
    (e) Use of Funds.--An eligible entity awarded a grant under this 
section shall use the grant funds to hire additional full-time, part-
time, and contractual school-based mental health providers and acute 
crisis response activities in order to help the eligible entity respond 
to the violent or traumatic crisis.
    (f) Supplement Not Supplant.--Funds made available under this 
section shall be used to supplement, and not supplant, other Federal, 
State, or private funds that would otherwise be expended to respond to 
the violent or traumatic crisis.

SEC. 5. STUDY ON THE AFFECTS OF VIOLENT AND TRAUMATIC EVENTS IN 
              SCHOOLS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary, in collaboration with Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, shall conduct a special resource study of 
communities that have experienced a violent or traumatic crisis.
    (b) Contents.--In conducting the study under subsection (a), the 
Secretary shall--
            (1) evaluate how violent and traumatic events can affect a 
        student's mental health, and the potential risks for developing 
        chronic psychiatric disorders; and
            (2) develop evidence-based best practices for a school to 
        return to learning after the school has been disrupted due to 
        violent or traumatic crisis, including best practices for 
        supporting school staff in such return.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act--
            (1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; and
            (2) such sums as may be necessary for each succeeding 
        fiscal year.
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