Enacts the college student suicide prevention act to provide for policies, guidelines and training opportunities to effectively and appropriately prevent student suicide, intervene in crisis situations, and support college communities in postvention.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9429
IN SENATE
May 15, 2024
___________
Introduced by Sen. WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the college
student suicide prevention act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "college student suicide prevention act".
3 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 6438-d to
4 read as follows:
5 § 6438-d. College student suicide prevention act. 1. Legislative
6 intent. The legislature finds and declares the following:
7 (a) According to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and
8 Prevention as reported in the year two thousand twenty-one, suicide is
9 the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults ten to
10 twenty-four years of age, inclusive, across both the state of New York
11 and the United States. Suicide rates nearly doubled among New York state
12 youth in this age range from the year two thousand seven to the year two
13 thousand eighteen. One in four surveyed young adults eighteen to twen-
14 ty-four years of age, the largest age demographic on college campuses,
15 reported having seriously considered suicide in the prior thirty days
16 nationally.
17 (b) In the year two thousand twenty-three, separate reports from the
18 Healthy Minds Network's national Healthy Minds Survey, the Gallup and
19 Lumina Foundation's national State of Higher Education Survey, and the
20 American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment
21 declared that United States college students were experiencing historic
22 levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, frequent emotional
23 stress, overall moderate to severe psychological distress, and loneli-
24 ness.
25 (c) According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, New
26 York state is not among the twenty-one states that uniformly require
27 institutions of higher education to adopt specific, evidence-based
28 suicide prevention policies by law. Such policies include the regular
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14926-03-4
S. 9429 2
1 dissemination of information on available mental health resources and
2 services to students, as well as the internal development of guidelines
3 and protocols to inform staff on how to respond to a student in suicidal
4 crisis, in order to most effectively support those at risk and empower
5 students to proactively seek help.
6 (d) According to data from Healthy CUNY, as reported in the year two
7 thousand twenty-one, more than half of all city university of New York
8 students report experiencing depression or anxiety. While nearly every
9 city university of New York institution houses its own counseling
10 center, data reported by the city university of New York board of trus-
11 tees in the board's four-year financial plan released in the year two
12 thousand nineteen stated that the average student-to-counselor ratio
13 across the city university of New York system is at least two thousand
14 four hundred-to-one. Until adequate staffing levels of mental health
15 professionals can be sustainably funded, uniformly requiring higher
16 education institutions to develop partnerships with community providers
17 is imperative to meet the needs of students at such institutions with
18 large student-to-counselor ratios or whose student populations primarily
19 live off-campus.
20 (e) Establishing gatekeeper suicide prevention or mental health aid
21 training requirements and opportunities for college residential staff
22 and other student-facing positions has been recommended by the state
23 university of New York Student Mental Health and Wellness Task Force and
24 adopted by dozens of state university of New York institutions. However,
25 these requirements have not been modeled by many colleges and universi-
26 ties outside of the state university of New York system, weakening
27 preparedness frameworks for students attending other public and private
28 institutions of higher education alike. As students most often seek
29 emotional support from peers and those in close proximity, institutions
30 must compel residential assistants and staff to utilize the free Ques-
31 tion, Persuade, and Refer suicide prevention training already fully
32 funded by state university of New York for all New York state college
33 students in order to bolster their preparedness for such emergency
34 scenarios.
35 (f) New York state colleges and universities are facing a deepening
36 mental health crisis among students, marked by increases in the preva-
37 lence of thoughts of suicide and attempts. All levels of collegiate
38 staff must be equipped by their respective institutions' policies,
39 guidelines and training opportunities to effectively and appropriately
40 prevent student suicide, intervene in crisis situations, and support
41 their college communities in postvention.
42 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms
43 shall have the following meanings:
44 (a) "Crisis situation" means a situation where a teacher or other
45 employee of an educational institution believes a student or other indi-
46 vidual is in imminent danger of a suicide attempt.
47 (b) "LGBTQ" means individuals who identify, with regards to gender
48 identification and sexual orientation, as being lesbian, gay, bisexual,
49 transgender, queer or questioning.
50 (c) "Higher education institution" means a college university, or
51 professional or technical school, whether public or private, that has
52 been incorporated by a special act of the legislature or chartered by
53 the regents of the university of the state of New York to confer academ-
54 ic degrees in this state.
55 (d) "QPR" means suicide prevention training based on the Question,
56 Persuade, and Refer emergency response model.
S. 9429 3
1 (e) "Suicide intervention" means specific actions higher education
2 institutions can take in response to suicidal behavior by a student,
3 including, but not limited to:
4 (i) student supervision;
5 (ii) notification of designated emergency contacts;
6 (iii) crisis situation response protocols;
7 (iv) when and how to request an immediate mental health assessment or
8 emergency services; and
9 (v) higher education institution re-entry procedures following a
10 student mental health crisis.
11 (f) "Suicide postvention" means planned support and interventions
12 higher education institutions can implement after a suicide attempt or
13 suicide death of a member of the higher education institution community
14 that are designed to:
15 (i) reduce the risk of suicide contagion, or the spread of suicidal
16 thoughts or intentions;
17 (ii) provide support for affected students and higher education insti-
18 tution-based personnel;
19 (iii) address the social stigma associated with suicide; and
20 (iv) disseminate factual information about suicide and its prevention.
21 (g) "Suicide prevention" means specific actions higher education
22 institutions can take to recognize and reduce suicidal behavior, includ-
23 ing, but not limited to:
24 (i) identifying risk and protective factors for suicide and suicide
25 warning signs;
26 (ii) establishing a process by which students are referred to a mental
27 and behavioral health provider for help;
28 (iii) making available higher education institution-based and communi-
29 ty-based mental health supports;
30 (iv) providing the location of available online and community suicide
31 prevention resources, including the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline and
32 other local crisis centers and hotlines;
33 (v) adopting policies and protocols regarding suicide prevention,
34 intervention, and postvention, campus safety, and response to crisis
35 situations;
36 (vi) training for higher education institution personnel who interact
37 directly with students in recognizing suicide risk factors and warning
38 signs and how to refer students for further assessment and evaluation;
39 and
40 (vii) instruction to students in problem-solving and coping skills to
41 promote students' mental, emotional, and social health and well-being,
42 and instruction in recognizing and appropriately responding to signs of
43 suicidal intent in others.
44 3. Policies, procedures, and guidelines for higher education insti-
45 tutions. (a) The governing board or body of every higher education
46 institution shall, before the first day of August, two thousand twenty-
47 four, adopt policies, procedures, and guidelines on student suicide
48 prevention, intervention, and postvention for said students. Such poli-
49 cies, procedures, and guidelines shall be developed in consultation with
50 collegiate and community stakeholders, campus-employed mental health
51 professionals, and suicide prevention experts, and shall include, but
52 not be limited to:
53 (i) methods to increase awareness of the relationship between suicide
54 and suicide warning signs, risk factors and protective factors, includ-
55 ing but not limited to:
56 (1) mental health and substance use conditions;
S. 9429 4
1 (2) childhood abuse, neglect, or trauma;
2 (3) prolonged stress, including individual experiences such as bully-
3 ing, harassment, family or relationship stress, or other stressful life
4 events as well as collective stressors such as systemic bias and
5 discrimination;
6 (4) exposure to another person's suicide, or sensationalized or graph-
7 ic accounts of suicide; and
8 (5) previous suicide attempts or history of suicide within a student's
9 family;
10 (ii) adoption of a requirement for residential assistants and staff of
11 student housing facilities, students' academic and professional advi-
12 sors, and campus security personnel to participate in either a QPR
13 gatekeeper suicide prevention training course, or a similar program
14 prior to the commencement of their duties or before the beginning of the
15 next full academic year. Such training shall include, but not be limit-
16 ed to:
17 (1) methods for early identification of suicide risk factors and
18 inclusion of expertise from higher education institution employees who
19 have previously been trained in recognizing suicide risks;
20 (2) information on how higher education institution employees should
21 respond to suspicion, concerns, or warning signs of suicide in students,
22 and the appropriate referral and reporting procedures available to high-
23 er education institution employees;
24 (3) information on how higher education institution employees should
25 respond within their means to a crisis situation where a student is in
26 imminent danger to such student;
27 (4) policies and protocols to respond to a student or staff suicide or
28 suicide attempt and provide support to survivors and affected peers and
29 families;
30 (iii) counseling services available within the higher education insti-
31 tution for students and their families that are related to suicide
32 prevention;
33 (iv) availability of information about depression and other mental
34 health conditions associated with an increased risk of suicide, includ-
35 ing development of an annual live orientation session for newly matricu-
36 lated students aimed at raising awareness of said conditions;
37 (v) implementation of specialized mental health awareness curricula
38 into existing courses and seminars if opportunities for integration
39 exist;
40 (vi) availability of information concerning crisis situation inter-
41 vention, suicide prevention, and mental health services in the community
42 for students and their families and higher education institution employ-
43 ees, and inclusion of said information on dedicated pages of the student
44 handbook and higher education institution website or primary mobile
45 application;
46 (vii) revision of emergency contact notification protocols to include
47 a student's expression of thoughts of suicide as among the circumstances
48 in which notification of said student's designated emergency contact may
49 take place by a campus-employed mental health professional, after noti-
50 fying said student of the protocol's activation and following case-by-
51 case consideration and documentation of any objections raised by the
52 student, any concerns that disclosure of such information may threaten
53 the student's safety or unreasonably compromise their right to privacy,
54 and the process by which the final determination that such disclosure is
55 in the student's best interest is made;
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1 (viii) revision of emergency contact notification protocols to include
2 language specifically outlining the higher education institution's role
3 following notification, the institution's expectation of an emergency
4 contact following notification, and the contact employee at the institu-
5 tion who may answer questions regarding the protocol, with all said
6 information being routinely communicated to students and emergency
7 contacts and published on dedicated pages of the student handbook and
8 higher education institution website or primary mobile application;
9 (ix) periodic assessments of elements of the campus environment that
10 may be used in a suicide attempt, including but not limited to access to
11 building rooftops, balconies, windows, and bridges, or access to drugs,
12 alcohol, and toxic or controlled dangerous substances, and ways to
13 secure these locations and substances to minimize threats posed to
14 students' health and safety;
15 (x) assessments of new and proposed campus buildings and infrastruc-
16 ture, as well as revisions and updates to existing campus buildings and
17 infrastructure, during the design process, for the implementation of
18 suicide deterrent barriers and other measures to minimize access to
19 areas of significant height, reducing suicide risk;
20 (xi) revision of medical leave and withdrawal policies to no longer
21 compel a student to involuntarily withdraw from enrollment solely on the
22 grounds of having considered or attempted suicide, without first allow-
23 ing said student to take a temporary leave of absence to seek support
24 for their mental health and providing a guarantee of readmission or
25 reinstatement following completion of such a leave of absence;
26 (xii) identification and development of off-campus peer support
27 programs and partnerships with community providers, organizations, and
28 agencies for referral of commuter students and other students who may
29 not substantially benefit from on-campus services to mental health,
30 substance use, and social support services, including the development of
31 at least one memorandum of understanding between the higher education
32 institution and a supporting provider, organization or agency in the
33 community or region;
34 (xiii) development of a culturally competent plan to promote sensitiv-
35 ity in outreach to diverse and traditionally underserved populations, to
36 assist survivors of attempted suicide, and to assist students and higher
37 education institution employees in coping with an attempted suicide or
38 suicide death within the higher education institution community; and
39 (xiv) development of any other related program or activity for
40 students or higher education institution employees.
41 (b) The policies, procedures, and guidelines adopted pursuant to para-
42 graph (a) of this subdivision shall specifically outline sensitive and
43 competent responses to address the needs of high-risk groups, including
44 but not limited to the following:
45 (i) youth who have lost a friend or family member to suicide;
46 (ii) youth with disabilities or with chronic health conditions,
47 including mental health and substance use conditions;
48 (iii) youth experiencing homelessness or in out-of-home settings, such
49 as foster care;
50 (iv) youth belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups and interna-
51 tional students;
52 (v) LGBTQ youth;
53 (vi) first-year, transfer, or otherwise newly matriculated students;
54 (vii) youth participating in demanding or high-performance programs,
55 including student athletes and academic honors or accelerated students;
56 and
S. 9429 6
1 (viii) youth reporting significant financial or academic challenges as
2 barriers to their ability to fully participate in higher education
3 institution activities.
4 (c) The policies, procedures, and guidelines adopted pursuant to para-
5 graph (a) of this subdivision shall be written to ensure that a higher
6 education institution employee acts only within the authorization and
7 scope of such employee's credential or license. Nothing in this section
8 shall be construed as authorizing or encouraging a higher education
9 institution employee to diagnose or treat mental health conditions
10 unless such employee is specifically licensed and employed to do so.
11 (d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no
12 cause of action may be brought for any loss or damage caused by any act
13 or omission resulting from the implementation of the provisions of this
14 section, or resulting from any training, or lack of training, required
15 by this section. Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose
16 any specific duty of care.
17 (e) To assist higher education institutions in developing policies for
18 student suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention, the board of
19 regents of the university of the state of New York shall develop and
20 maintain model policies, procedures, and guidelines in accordance with
21 this section to serve as a guide for higher education institutions. Such
22 model policies, procedures, and guidelines shall be posted within thirty
23 days of their completion on the university's internet website, along
24 with relevant resources and information to support higher education
25 institutions in developing and implementing the policies, procedures,
26 and guidelines required under paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
27 (f) The trustees or other governing board or body of a higher educa-
28 tion institution shall review, at minimum every fifth year following the
29 effective date of this section, its policies, procedures, and guidelines
30 on student suicide prevention and, if necessary, update such policies,
31 procedures, and guidelines.
32 4. Severability and construction. The provisions of this section shall
33 be severable, and if any court of competent jurisdiction declares any
34 phrase, clause, sentence or provision of this section to be invalid, or
35 its applicability to any government agency, person or circumstance is
36 declared invalid, the remainder of this section and its relevant appli-
37 cability shall not be affected. The provisions of this section shall be
38 liberally construed to give effect to the purposes thereof.
39 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
