Bill Text: CA SB972 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Senate Bill 972 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Pupil and student health: identification cards: suicide prevention hotline telephone numbers.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-1)

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-17 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 460, Statutes of 2018. [SB972 Detail]

Download: California-2017-SB972-Chaptered.html

Senate Bill No. 972

CHAPTER 460

An act to amend the heading of Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 215) of Chapter 2 of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 1 of, and to add Section 215.5 to, the Education Code, relating to pupil and student health.

[ Approved by Governor September 17, 2018. Filed with Secretary of State September 17, 2018. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 972, Portantino. Pupil and student health: identification cards: suicide prevention hotline telephone numbers.

Existing law, the California Suicide Prevention Act of 2000, authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to establish and implement a suicide prevention, education, and gatekeeper program to reduce the severity, duration, and incidence of suicidal behaviors. The act authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to contract with an outside agency to establish and implement a targeted public awareness and education campaign on suicide prevention and treatment, and requires that the target population include junior high and high school students.

Existing law requires the governing board or body of a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to, before the beginning of the 2017–18 school year, adopt a policy on pupil suicide prevention, as specified, that specifically addresses the needs of high-risk groups. Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to consider developing, and recommending for adoption by the State Board of Education, a distinct category on mental health instruction to educate pupils about all aspects of mental health, including, among other things, depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to send a notice to each middle school, junior high school, and high school that encourages each school to provide suicide prevention training to each school counselor, provides information on the availability of certain suicide prevention training curriculum, informs schools about certain suicide prevention training, and describes how a school might retain those services.

This bill would require a public school, including a charter school, or a private school, that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and that issues pupil identification cards to have printed on either side of the pupil identification cards the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and would authorize those schools to have printed on either side of the pupil identification cards the Crisis Text Line and a local suicide prevention hotline telephone number. The bill would require a public or private institution of higher education that issues student identification cards to have printed on either side of the student identification cards the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and would authorize the institution to have printed on either side of the student identification cards the Crisis Text Line, the campus police or security telephone number, or the local nonemergency telephone number, as provided, and a local suicide prevention hotline telephone number. The bill would require schools and public or private institutions of higher education subject to these requirements that have a supply of unissued, noncompliant identification cards as of January 1, 2019, to issue the noncompliant identification cards until that supply is depleted.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

The heading of Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 215) of Chapter 2 of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code is amended to read:

Article 2.5. Pupil and Student Suicide Prevention Policies

SEC. 2.

Section 215.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:

215.5.

(a) Commencing July 1, 2019, a public school, including a charter school, or a private school, that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and that issues pupil identification cards shall have printed on either side of the pupil identification cards the telephone number described in paragraph (1) and may have printed on either side of the pupil identification cards the telephone numbers described in paragraphs (2) and (3):

(1) The telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255.

(2) The Crisis Text Line, which can be accessed by texting HOME to 741741.

(3) A local suicide prevention hotline telephone number.

(b) Commencing July 1, 2019, a public or private institution of higher education that issues student identification cards shall have printed on either side of the student identification cards the telephone number described in paragraph (1) and may have printed on either side of the student identification cards the telephone numbers described in paragraphs (2), (3), and (4):

(1) The telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255.

(2) The Crisis Text Line, which can be accessed by texting HOME to 741741.

(3) The campus police or security telephone number or, if the campus does not have a campus police or security telephone number, the local nonemergency telephone number.

(4) A local suicide prevention hotline telephone number.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), if, as of January 1, 2019, a school subject to the requirements of subdivision (a), or a public or private institution of higher education subject to the requirements of subdivision (b), has a supply of unissued pupil or student identification cards that do not comply with the requirements of subdivision (a) or (b), as applicable, the school or the public or private institution of higher education shall issue those pupil or student identification cards until that supply is depleted.

(d) Subdivisions (a) and (b) shall apply for a pupil or student identification card issued for the first time to a pupil or student, and to a pupil or student identification card issued to replace a damaged or lost pupil or student identification card.