Pupil health: suicide prevention.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not specify if all educational entities will be required or encouraged to use the new training program, leaving some uncertainty.

Pupil Health: Suicide Prevention

The bill changes the responsibility for developing a pupil suicide prevention training program from the State Department of Education to the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and requires educational entities serving pupils from kindergarten through grade 12 to use this new training program if they choose to conduct suicide risk screenings.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the requirement for the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based online training program for pupil suicide prevention.
• Requires the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to develop a new online training program on pupil suicide prevention.
• Allows educational entities serving pupils from kindergarten through grade 12 to use this new training program if they choose to conduct suicide risk screenings.
• Requires schools that elect to conduct suicide risk screenings to report data about these screenings annually to the State Department of Education.
• Requires the State Department of Education to compile and post statewide aggregate data on suicide risk screenings on its website.

Who It Names or Affects

• Educational entities serving pupils from kindergarten through grade 12, including county offices of education, school districts, state special schools, and charter schools.
• Parents and students who will receive training on pupil suicide prevention.

Terms To Know

Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission

A commission responsible for overseeing behavioral health services in the state.

Suicide risk screenings

Tests or assessments used to identify students who may be at risk of suicide.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much funding will be provided for developing and implementing the new training program.
• It is unclear if all educational entities will choose to conduct suicide risk screenings, which would affect the data reported annually.

Official Summary Text

AB 2003, as amended, Berman.
Pupil health: suicide prevention.
Existing law requires the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based online training program that a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, can use to train school staff and pupils as part of their policy on pupil suicide prevention. Existing law requires the department, subject to an appropriation for these purposes, to provide a grant to a county office of education to acquire a training program identified by the department and disseminate that training program at no cost to specified educational entities, as specified.
This bill would revise and recast these provisions by (1) deleting the requirement to provide the above-described grant, (2) deleting the requirement of the department to identify the above-described evidence-based
online training program, (3) instead requiring the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to develop an online training program to train school staff, parents, and pupils of county offices of education, school districts, state special schools, and charter schools that serve pupils in kindergarten or in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, on pupil suicide prevention, as specified. The bill would require those educational entities that elect to conduct suicide risk screenings to
report data on these screenings
report, on or before June 30, 2027, and June 30 annually thereafter, the number of pupils screened, and which screening instruments were used, for the reporting year,
to the department, as provided, and would require the department to compile and post statewide aggregate data on these
screenings on its internet website, as provided.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF