Act No. 324

Public Acts of 2006

Approved by the Governor

July 20, 2006

Filed with the Secretary of State

July 20, 2006

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 20, 2006

STATE OF MICHIGAN

93RD LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2006

Introduced by Reps. Ward, Accavitti, Anderson, Sak, Ball, Sheltrown, Moore, Bieda, Espinoza, Green, Rocca, Stahl, Gleason, Kathleen Law, Hopgood, Condino, Leland, McConico, Plakas, Stewart, Zelenko, Kolb, Lipsey, Kooiman, Meyer, Williams, Brown, Gaffney, Hunter, Tobocman, Pastor, LaJoy, Wojno, Acciavatti, Clack, Vagnozzi, DeRoche, Taub, Amos, Stakoe, Garfield, Hune, Nofs, Wenke, Steil, VanRegenmorter, Farhat, Moolenaar, Palsrok, Gillard, Casperson, Dillon, Angerer, Baxter, Bennett, Booher, Byrnes, Caul, Cheeks, Clemente, Cushingberry, Donigan, Elsenheimer, Gonzales, Gosselin, Hansen, Hildenbrand, Jones, Kahn, David Law, Mayes, McDowell, Miller, Mortimer, Palmer, Pavlov, Pearce, Polidori, Proos, Schuitmaker, Spade, Hood and Murphy

ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 4375

AN ACT to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled "An act to provide a system of public instruction and elementary and secondary schools; to revise, consolidate, and clarify the laws relating to elementary and secondary education; to provide for the organization, regulation, and maintenance of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and other public school entities; to prescribe rights, powers, duties, and privileges of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and other public school entities; to provide for the regulation of school teachers and certain other school employees; to provide for school elections and to prescribe powers and duties with respect thereto; to provide for the levy and collection of taxes; to provide for the borrowing of money and issuance of bonds and other evidences of indebtedness; to establish a fund and provide for expenditures from that fund; to provide for and prescribe the powers and duties of certain state departments, the state board of education, and certain other boards and officials; to provide for licensure of boarding schools; to prescribe penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts," (MCL 380.1 to 380.1852) by adding section 1171.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 1171. (1) The board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy is encouraged to provide age-appropriate instruction for pupils and professional development for school personnel concerning the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and depression and the protective factors that help prevent suicide. The instruction and professional development shall be designed to achieve the following goals:

(a) To prevent both fatal and nonfatal suicide behaviors among youth.

(b) To increase pupil awareness of the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and depression.

(c) To improve access to appropriate prevention services for vulnerable youth groups.

(2) The board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy is encouraged to work with school personnel and local or state organizations and resources specializing in suicide prevention and awareness.

(3) The department shall develop or select model programs and materials on suicide prevention and awareness that are appropriate for the purposes of this section, such as the Michigan model for comprehensive school health education, and shall make those model programs and materials available to school districts and public school academies.

(4) If a school district or public school academy provides instruction described in subsection (1), the board of the school district or board of directors of the public school academy shall notify the parents of all pupils of each school in which the instruction is provided about the instruction using the communication method the school district or public school academy normally uses for regular communications with parents.

(5) Failure of a school district or public school academy to comply with subsection (4) does not create a cause of action or constitute a breach of any legal duty in a civil action.

(6) This section shall be known as the "Chase Edwards law".

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Clerk of the House of Representatives

Secretary of the Senate

Approved

Governor