Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that requires annual suicide and violence prevention classes for public middle and high school students.

Highlights:

• Requires the Department of Education to maintain a list of no fewer than 3 approved training programs to be posted on its website for instruction in suicide and violence awareness and prevention (Sec. 3301.221).

• Requires that the approved training programs, per the previous highlight, be evidence-based and include the following information, including (Sec. 3301.221):

• How to instruct school personnel to identify the signs and symptoms of depression, suicide, and self-harm in students;

• How to instruct students to identify the signs and symptoms of depression, suicide, and self-harm in their peers;

• How to identify appropriate mental health services within schools and larger communities, and when and how to refer youth and their families to those services; and 

• How to teach students about mental health and depression, warning signs of suicide, and the importance and processes for seeking help on behalf of the self and peers, and how to report these behaviors.

• Requires the Department to maintain a list of no fewer than 3 approved training programs, to be posted on its website, for instruction in social inclusion (Sec. 3301.221).

• Requires the approved list, per the previous highlight, to include at least one option that is free to schools, evidence-based, and includes the following information (Sec. 3301.221):

• What social isolation is and how to identify it in others;

• What social inclusion is and the importance of establishing connections with peers;

• When and how to seek help for peers who may be socially isolated; and 

• How to utilize strategies for more social inclusion in classrooms and the school community.

• Requires that starting with the first day of the next school year beginning at least 2 years after the effective date of this act, in grades 6 though 12, there will be at least one hour or one standard class period per school year of evidence-based suicide awareness and prevention, and at least one hour or one standard class period per school year of safety training and violence prevention (Sec. 3313.60).

• Requires that starting with the first day of the next school year beginning at least 2 years after the effective date of the act, in grades 6 through 12, there will be at least one hour or one standard class period per school year of evidence-based social inclusion instruction (Sec. 3313.60).

• Defines “evidence-based” as a program or practice that does either of the following (3301.221):

• Demonstrates a rationale based on high-quality research findings or a positive evaluation that such a program or practice is likely to improve relevant outcomes and includes ongoing efforts to examine the effects of the program or practice; or

• Has a statistically significant effect on relevant outcomes based on:

• Strong evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study;

• Moderate evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study; or 

• Promising evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented correlation study with statistical controls for selection bias. 

• Requires each local, city, exempted village, and joint vocational school district to designate a student-led violence prevention club for each school building in the district service grades 6 through 12, which must do the following (Sec. 3313.6611):

• Be open to all members of the student body;

• Have at least one identified adult supervisor;

• Implement and sustain suicide and violence prevention and social inclusion training and awareness activities; and

• Foster opportunities for student leadership development.

• Requires each school administrator to incorporate a protocol for school threat assessment teams into the emergency management plan (Sec. 5502.262).

Full Bill Text