STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 528

with Senate Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Senator RUIZ)

ADOPTED: MAY 26, 2022

      These floor amendments:

· exclude licensed mental health care professionals from the list of school employees and contracted service providers required to receive training on suicide prevention;

· specify that the Department of Education, in consultation with various other agencies, is only responsible for identifying suicide prevention training programs. In its original form, the department was also required to develop such programs;

· eliminate the provisions of the bill requiring the department to develop an educational fact sheet on suicide prevention;

· require that the suicide prevention training be completed not less than 12 months following the date of the identification by the department of the training programs or not less than 12 months from the date that an employee is hired;

· specify that all personnel required to complete the suicide prevention training have a duty to warn and protect when: a student has communicated to that person a clearly identifiable threat of imminent, serious physical violence against oneself and the circumstances are such that a reasonable person would believe the student intended to carry out the threat; or the circumstances are such that a reasonable person would believe the student intended to carry out an act of imminent, serious physical violence against oneself; and

· specify that a person acting in good faith and who takes reasonable steps to discharge a duty to warn and protect is immune from civil and criminal liability.