Sponsors (2)
The bill expands and professionalizes school-based suicide-prevention by funding evidence-based programs and stronger evaluation, improving student safety but imposing new public costs, administrative burdens on schools, and privacy and innovation trade-offs.
Students: gain access to evidence-based, school- and youth-setting suicide-prevention programs that improve early identification and support, reducing suicidal ideation, attempts, and deaths.
Schools and local communities: receive technical assistance, guidance, and incentives to adopt scalable, evidence-based mental-health interventions and to track outcomes, improving program quality and consistency.
Public health agencies and policymakers: federal support strengthens data collection, evaluation, and targeting of funds to interventions with stronger evidence while funding rigorous evaluations of promising innovations.
Taxpayers and local budgets: likely face increased federal and local spending (the bill authorizes "such sums as may be necessary" for FY2027–2032 and may require school-level investment) without a capped amount or guaranteed short-term ROI.
Schools, teachers, and staff: will need to allocate time and personnel to program implementation, data collection, and evaluation, which could strain limited school resources and divert attention from academics.
Students and families: collection and reporting of sensitive mental-health data (suicidal ideation, attempts) could raise privacy, consent, and data-protection concerns if de-identification and safeguards are insufficient.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates an HHS demonstration grant program to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-tiered youth suicide prevention strategies in schools and youth settings.
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out demonstration programs to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based strategies to prevent suicide among children and adolescents, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 21, 2026 by Brittany Pettersen · Last progress May 21, 2026
Creates a new HHS demonstration grant program to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based suicide prevention strategies for children and adolescents, with priority given to schools and other youth-support settings. The program funds eligible states, educational agencies, tribal organizations, nonprofits, and colleges to pilot, scale, and evaluate interventions and requires HHS to define tiers of evidence (strong, moderate, promising), provide technical assistance, and allocate funds based on evidence strength. The law sets standards for what counts as evidence, directs coordination with state, tribal, and local education and public health agencies, and emphasizes rigorous evaluation, data collection, and reporting to help schools choose effective large-scale approaches that reduce suicide attempts and deaths among young people.