Sponsors (6)
The bill would expand and standardize suicide prevention, training, and postvention supports for middle and high school students—potentially reducing youth suicide and improving school responses—while imposing new costs, compliance requirements, and potential privacy and equity challenges for under-resourced districts.
Students in grades 6–12 will receive evidence-based suicide-prevention and stigma-reduction programs, increasing early identification and help-seeking among adolescents.
School staff (teachers, counselors, administrators) will get regular (biennial) training to recognize and respond to suicide risk and trauma, improving schools' capacity to intervene and support at-risk students.
Schools, especially smaller or under-resourced districts, will have access to federal resources and technical assistance to implement programs and meet requirements, helping districts comply and build capacity.
School districts will face additional administrative, training, and program costs to meet biennial training and program requirements, which could strain local budgets and divert funds from other needs.
Smaller, rural, or under-resourced districts may struggle to build referral networks or partner with mental-health providers where local services are limited, reducing the effectiveness of required interventions for students in those areas.
Conditioning federal funds on compliance creates a risk that schools unable to meet requirements could lose funding, potentially harming the students those schools serve if implementation is infeasible.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Conditions federal K–12 program funds on schools adopting evidence-based suicide prevention, postvention, and trauma-informed practices with staff training and referral systems.
Introduced September 18, 2025 by Zach Nunn · Last progress September 18, 2025
Requires the Secretary of Education to issue a rule (within 210 days) that conditions receipt of applicable federal K–12 program funds on schools adopting evidence-based suicide prevention, postvention, and trauma-informed practices. Covered K–12 educational agencies and institutions must adopt prevention programs, biennial staff trainings, referral systems, awareness campaigns, a suicide postvention plan, trauma-informed policies, and cooperate with mental-health providers; the Department must provide technical assistance and perform compliance reviews.