126th Morrison Congress

2nd Session

H.R. 126-068

Title of the Bill: Education of Mental Health to High School Personnel Act

Main Author(s): Emily Chang (D-NY), Hideaki Nakayama (D-MA)

Co-Sponsor(s):

BE IT ENACTED BY THE MORRISON CONGRESS

1 SECTION 1: Findings
2 Congress makes the following findings:
3 1) 50% of all students with a mental illness (age 14 and older) become high
4 school dropouts. (i)
5 2) Percentages of children/youth who have unmet mental health needs: (ii)
6 a) 77% of African-Americans
7 b) 88% of Latinos
8 c) 76% of Whites
9 3) Annually, 4600 youth die as a result of suicide. (i)
10 4) For youth, suicide is the third leading cause of death. (i)
11 a) An estimated 90% have a diagnosable mental health condition
12 5) Trends in depression have spiked among young adults in the past 9 years by
13 a 37% increase. (iii)
14 6) Suicide prevention and awareness are key in combating this. (i)
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16 SECTION 2: Purpose
17 The purpose of this bill provides that measures for understanding and providing for
18 mental health are increased in public high schools. A new program should be
19 developed that will educate school personnel on mental health conditions in high
20 school students, including, but not limited to, the causes, the symptoms, and the
21 potential solutions.
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23 SECTION 3: General Provisions
24 The new training program will be funded by grants allocated from the public
25 education funding.
26 The program will be hosted by those who have experience in areas of psychology, or
27 have the expertise from having lived with the experience of mental illness and
28 suicide prevention. The program will educate personnel by:
29 1. Helping staff to better understand mental health conditions and the early
30 warning signs.
31 2. Means of communicating with families about these matters.
32 3. Identifying classroom strategies for accommodating students with mental
33 health disorders.
34 4. Understand how their school may help the students through their support
35 systems.
36 Evaluations are to be held in order to ensure the effectiveness of the programs
37 carried out under the grant. Those who fail to meet said evaluation criterias will no
38 longer receive the funding. The following are criterias to be evaluated:
 39 1. The improvement in understanding mental health conditions among staff,
40 students, and parents.
41 2. The reduction of students with mental health conditions.
42 3. An increase in accommodations for students with mental health conditions.
43 4. The redirection of students with mental health concerns to counselors or
44 others who may help.
45 5. The effectiveness of support services within the school.
46
47 SECTION 4: Definitions
48 Youth = aged 14-18
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Works Cited:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4716/text (i)
https://youth.gov/youth-topics/youth-mental-health/prevalance-mental-health-disorders-amon
g-youth (ii)
http://time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/ (iii)