United States S 1543: STANDUP Act of 2021

Bill Text

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117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 1543
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide best practices on student
suicide awareness and prevention training and condition State educational
agencies, local educational agencies, and tribal educational agencies re-
ceiving funds under section 520A of such Act to establish and implement
a school-based student suicide awareness and prevention training policy.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 10, 2021
Ms. HASSAN (for herself, Ms. ERNST, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr.
COONS, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. MARKEY, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. TILLIS, Mr.
MURPHY, and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide best
practices on student suicide awareness and prevention
training and condition State educational agencies, local
educational agencies, and tribal educational agencies re-
ceiving funds under section 520A of such Act to establish
and implement a school-based student suicide awareness
and prevention training policy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Suicide Training and 2
Awareness Nationally Delivered for Universal Prevention 3
Act of 2021’’ or the ‘‘STANDUP Act of 2021’’. 4
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5
The Congress finds as follows: 6
(1) Since 2010, suicide has been the second- 7
leading cause of death for young people ages 10 8
through 24. In 2019, 6,488 young people ages 10– 9
24 died by suicide. 10
(2) Based on the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior 11
Survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-12
vention (in this section referred to as ‘‘CDC’’), 8.9 13
percent of youth in grades 9–12 reported that they 14
made at least one suicide attempt during the 12 15
months before the survey. 16
(3) While there is no complete count of suicide 17
attempts in the United States, CDC data suggests 18
that for every reported death by suicide among peo-19
ple ages 10 through 24, approximately 33.5 young 20
people visit a hospital for self-harm related injuries. 21
(4) In 2019, suicide was the tenth-leading cause 22
of death overall in the United States, with over 23
47,500 people dying by suicide, and there were more 24
than twice as many suicides in the United States as 25
there were homicides. 26
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(5) Youth often display warning signs and sig-1
nals before harming themselves or others. Research 2
shows that 70 percent of those who die by suicide 3
tell someone of their plans or give another warning 4
sign. 5
(6) According to the CDC, the rates of suicide 6
among non-Hispanic American Indians and Alaska 7
Natives were 60 percent greater than the general 8
population in 2019 and are the highest of any racial 9
or ethnic group in the United States. In addition, a 10
study of CDC data from 2001 through 2015 shows 11
that suicide rates for Black children ages 5 through 12
12 were roughly 2 times higher than those of simi-13
larly aged White children. 14
SEC. 3. STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION 15
TRAINING. 16
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title V of the Public Health Serv-17
ice Act is amended by inserting after section 520A of such 18
Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb–32) the following: 19
‘‘SEC. 520B. STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS AND PREVEN-20
TION TRAINING POLICIES. 21
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—As a condition on receipt of 22
funds under section 520A, each State educational agency, 23
local educational agency, and tribal educational agency 24
that receives such funds, directly or through a State or 25
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Indian Tribe, for activities to be performed in schools with 1
respect to grades 6 through 12, including the Project 2
AWARE State Education Agency Grant Program, shall— 3
‘‘(1) establish and implement a school-based 4
student suicide awareness and prevention training 5
policy; 6
‘‘(2) consult with stakeholders (including prin-7
cipals, teachers, parents, local tribal officials, and 8
other school leaders) in the development of the pol-9
icy under subsection (a)(1); and 10
‘‘(3) collect and report information in accord-11
ance with subsection (c). 12
‘‘(b) SCHOOL-BASED STUDENT SUICIDE AWARENESS 13
AND PREVENTION TRAINING POLICY.—A school-based 14
student suicide awareness and prevention training policy 15
implemented pursuant to subsection (a)— 16
‘‘(1) shall be evidence-based; 17
‘‘(2) shall be culturally and linguistically appro-18
priate; 19
‘‘(3) shall provide evidenc