[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1543 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1543

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide best practices on 
 student suicide awareness and prevention training and condition State 
     educational agencies, local 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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 10, 2021

 Ms. Hassan (for herself, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Capito, Mr. 
 Coons, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Markey, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Murphy, 
and Mr. Braun) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide best practices on 
 student suicide awareness and prevention training and condition State 
     educational agencies, local 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.

    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 Training and Awareness 
Nationally Delivered for Universal Prevention Act of 2021'' or the 
``STANDUP Act of 2021''.

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 through 24. In 2019, 6,488 
        young people ages 10-24 died by suicide.
            (2) Based on the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in this section 
        referred to as ``CDC''), 8.9 percent of youth in grades 9-12 
        reported that they made at least one suicide attempt during the 
        12 months before the survey.
            (3) While there is no complete count of suicide attempts in 
        the United States, CDC data suggests that for every reported 
        death by suicide among people ages 10 through 24, approximately 
        33.5 young people visit a hospital for self-harm related 
        injuries.
            (4) In 2019, suicide was the tenth-leading cause of death 
        overall in the United States, with over 47,500 people dying by 
        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 die by suicide tell someone of their plans or give 
        another warning sign.
            (6) According to the CDC, the rates of suicide among non-
        Hispanic American Indians and Alaska Natives were 60 percent 
        greater than the general population in 2019 and are the highest 
        of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. In 
        addition, a study of CDC data from 2001 through 2015 shows that 
        suicide rates for Black children ages 5 through 12 were roughly 
        2 times higher than those of similarly aged White children.

SEC. 3. STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION TRAINING.

    (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 
              POLICIES.

    ``(a) In General.--As a condition on receipt of funds under section 
520A, each State educational agency, local educational agency, and 
tribal educational agency that receives such funds, directly or through 
a State or Indian Tribe, for activities to be performed in schools with 
respect to grades 6 through 12, including the Project AWARE State 
Education Agency Grant Program, shall--
            ``(1) establish and implement a school-based student 
        suicide awareness and prevention training policy;
            ``(2) consult with stakeholders (including principals, 
        teachers, parents, local tribal officials, and other school 
        leaders) in the development of the policy under subsection 
        (a)(1); and
            ``(3) collect and report information in accordance with 
        subsection (c).
    ``(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 be culturally and linguistically appropriate;
            ``(3) shall provide evidence-based training to students in 
        grades 6 through 12, using school-based mental health service 
        providers, if such providers are reasonably available, 
        regarding--
                    ``(A) suicide education and awareness, including 
                warning signs for suicide and self-harm;
                    ``(B) methods that students can use to seek help 
                for themselves and others; and
                    ``(C) student resources for suicide awareness and 
                prevention;
            ``(4) shall provide for retraining of such students every 
        school year;
            ``(5) may last for such period as the State educational 
        agency, local educational agency, or tribal educational agency 
        involved determines to be appropriate;
            ``(6) may be implemented through any delivery method, 
        including in-person trainings, digital trainings, or train-the-
        trainer models; and
            ``(7) may include discussion of comorbidities and risk 
        factors for suicidal ideation or self-harm, including substance 
        misuse, sexual, or physical abuse, mental illness, and other 
        evidence-based comorbidities or risk factors.
    ``(c) Collection of Information and Reporting.--Each State 
educational agency, local 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) The number of student trainings conducted.
            ``(2) The number of students trained, disaggregated by age 
        and grade level.
            ``(3) The number of help-seeking reports made by students 
        after implementation of such policy.
    ``(d) Evidence-Based Program Listing.--The Secretary, in 
consultation with the Secretary of Education, shall make publicly 
available the policies established by State educational agencies, local 
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.
    ``(e) Implementation Timeline.--A State educational agency, local 
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.
    ``(f) 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 `local education agency' has the meaning 
        given to such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965.
            ``(3) The term `school-based mental health service 
        provider' has the meaning given to such term in section 4102(6) 
        of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
            ``(4) The term `State educational agency' has the meaning 
        given to such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965.
            ``(5) The term `tribal educational agency' has the meaning 
        given to such term in section 6132 of the Elementary and 
        Secondary Education Act of 1965.

``SEC. 520B-1. BEST PRACTICES FOR STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND 
              PREVENTION TRAINING.

    ``The Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary, in 
consultation with the Secretary of Education and the Bureau of Indian 
Education, shall--
            ``(1) publish best practices for school-based student 
        suicide awareness and prevention training, pursuant to section 
        520B, that are based on--
                    ``(A) evidence-based practices; and
                    ``(B) input from relevant Federal agencies, 
                national organizations, Indian tribes and tribal 
                organizations, and related stakeholders;
            ``(2) publish guidance, based on the best practices under 
        paragraph (1), to provide State educational agencies, local 
        educational agencies, and tribal educational agencies with 
        information on student suicide awareness and prevention best 
        practices;
            ``(3) disseminate such best practices to State educational 
        agencies, local educational agencies, and tribal educational 
        agencies; and
            ``(4) provide technical assistance to State educational 
        agencies, local educational agencies, and tribal educational 
        agencies.''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall only apply with respect to 
applications for assistance under section 520A of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb-32) that are submitted after the date of 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>