Commission advisory committee backs statewide school suicide‑prevention bill and data collection

The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission’s Legislative and External Affairs Advisory Committee voted to recommend that the full commission sponsor legislation to expand suicide‑prevention training in schools and create a statewide system for de‑identified suicide‑risk screening data.

Deputy Director Kendra Zoller, presenting staff’s recommendation, said the proposal “has 2 main parts, to develop free online suicide prevention training for students, teachers, and parents, and caregivers. And 2, creating a statewide system to collect and analyze school suicide risk screening data.” Zoller told commissioners the proposal aligns with the commission’s earlier reports and the legislative decision‑making framework and identified Behavioral Health Student Services Act (BHSA) administrative dollars as a potential one‑time funding source for development.

Commissioner Anna Madrigal Weiss and Heather Namor of the San Diego County Office of Education described local experience with similar efforts. Madrigal Weiss said San Diego’s COPES initiative, funded by a four‑year MHSA grant, expanded supports across more than 440 school sites and used LivingWorks Start trainings alongside Columbia suicide‑risk screenings. She cited local training outcomes: "After completing the training, 98 percent of staff and 95 percent of students felt confident in their ability to help someone who might be thinking about suicide." The presenters said LivingWorks Start licenses that were once free after AB 1808 funding are now limited and the lack of a free, statewide option leaves an access gap.

Public commenters and commissioners pressed staff on key details the bill would need to address before full sponsorship: age range (presenters recommended beginning with middle and high school students), language access, evidence and disaggregation of outcomes for different racial groups, modality (online versus in‑person) and how the screening tool would function for non‑English speakers. Carlene Davis of the California Black Women’s Health Project asked specifically whether evidence and outcomes had been disaggregated for Black youth, noting that the suicide rate for Black youth rose substantially in past decades and requesting parity of outcomes, not just participation rates. Commissioners and staff said the Columbia suicide‑severity screening tool and LivingWorks Start are evidence‑based and that the proposal would define acceptable evidence standards and set parameters for data collection and disaggregation.

Staff discussed initial budget planning. Zoller said staff plan to leverage existing state platforms where possible to minimize ongoing hosting costs; she referenced an onetime development allocation of about $1.5 million and said the data‑collection element will require additional work to estimate ongoing costs.

Following presentation and public comment, the committee moved and seconded a recommendation that the full commission sponsor the bill. A roll‑call vote recorded Aye from Commissioner Fairweather, Commissioner Hill, Commissioner Larson, Commissioner Thomas Beckett, and Committee vice chair Cowan; the motion passed and the recommendation will be forwarded to the full commission for consideration.

Next steps: staff said they will continue interagency coordination (California Department of Education, California Department of Public Health, Department of Health Care Services) and refine legislative language, evidence definitions, language‑access plans and data privacy measures before the bill is submitted to the Legislature.