Pupil health: suicide prevention.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details on funding or the effectiveness of the new training program, leaving these points as unknowns.

Pupil Health: Suicide Prevention

The bill changes the responsibility for developing a suicide prevention training program from the State Department of Education to the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and it requires reporting on any suicide risk screenings conducted by educational entities.

What This Bill Does

• Deletes the requirement for the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based online training program for schools.
• Requires the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to develop a new online training program for school staff, pupils aged 13 or older, parents, guardians, and caregivers as part of suicide prevention policies.
• Allows educational entities to choose whether to conduct suicide risk screenings.
• If an entity chooses to do screenings, it must report the number of students screened and which tools were used by June 30 each year starting in 2027.

Who It Names or Affects

• School staff
• Pupils aged 13 or older
• Parents, guardians, and caregivers
• County offices of education, school districts, state special schools, and charter schools

Terms To Know

Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission

A group that oversees behavioral health services in the state.

Suicide risk screenings

Tests to identify students who might be at risk of suicide.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much funding will be provided for these changes.
• It is unclear if all schools and county offices will choose to conduct suicide risk screenings.
• The effectiveness of the new training program has yet to be determined.

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,
pupils who are 13 years of age or older, and
parents,
and pupils of
guardians, or caregivers of pupils as part of the policy on pupil suicide prevention adopted by
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, 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