In response to the increasingly high rate of youth suicide, teen suicide has gained national attention. State governments have created legislation regarding youth suicide prevention in schools.

States hold the power to instruct their schools in how to address suicide prevention. The following is a summary of state laws, policies, and practices for suicide prevention in K-12 schools:

• 13 states mandate annual suicide prevention training for school personnel:
  • Alaska
  • Delaware
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Louisiana
  • Maryland
  • Nebraska
  • New Hampshire
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
• 18 states mandate training in suicide prevention for school personnel but do not specify that the training must be annual:
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Connecticut
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Maine
  • Mississippi
  • Nevada
  • New Jersey
  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Utah
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • Wyoming
  • Washington, D.C.
• 15 states have laws in place that encourage suicide prevention training for school personnel:
  • Alabama
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • New York
  • North Dakota
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • Wisconsin
• 22 states require school suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies and/or suicide prevention programming:
  • Alabama
  • California
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Maine
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Tennessee
  • Utah
  • Washington
  • Washington, D.C.
• 7 other states encourage such policies and/or programming:
  • Arkansas
  • Louisiana
  • Maryland
  • New Jersey
  • Oklahoma
  • Texas
  • Virginia

Other Unique Prevention Policies

• California, Louisiana, and Maryland require the inclusion of suicide prevention hotline numbers on the back of student ID cards.
• Florida and Louisiana designate schools that offer suicide prevention training/programming per statute as “Suicide Prevention Certified Schools.”
• Louisiana randomly surveys school employees to ascertain their compliance with state mandated suicide prevention training and reports survey findings to the legislature.
• New Jersey requires the reporting of a student’s attempted or completed suicide by teachers and licensed psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, physicians, physician assistants, alcohol and drug counselors, registered nurses licensed practical nurses, and public health officials, as obtained in the course of their work.
• Oklahoma requires teachers, counselors, principals, administrators, and other school personnel to immediately notify the parents or legal guardians of students determined to be at risk for attempting suicide.
• Utah requires schools to notify a parent or guardian if a student threatens to complete suicide or is involved in a bullying incident and they must maintain a record of that notification; school boards are required to adopt a policy regarding the process for parent/guardian notification.
• Utah also requires school districts to offer evening parent seminars at no cost that cover a variety of topics including substance use and prevention, bullying, mental health, depression, suicide awareness, suicide prevention, and internet safety.
• Virginia requires all licensed administrative or instructional personnel to contact a student’s guardian “as soon as practicable” should they have reason to believe, as a result of direct communication from a student, that the student is at imminent risk of suicide.