HF 566 Summary

• School boards must adopt policies to establish safety assessment teams that use fact-based, evidence-based processes to evaluate threatening situations and students who may pose threats to school safety.

• Safety assessment teams must include school officials with expertise in counseling, school psychology, and special education, plus mental health professionals, law enforcement, and cultural liaisons to the extent practicable.

• Teams must immediately report preliminary determinations of student violence threats to the superintendent and attempt to notify parents, while considering services addressing underlying behavioral or mental health issues.

• Safety assessment data must not be redisclosed or shared with law enforcement without reasonable cause, and parents must be notified when data is provided to law enforcement outside the team.

• Commissioner of Education receives $300,000 in fiscal year 2020 for grants to school districts for training safety assessment team members, with up to 3 percent available for grant administration and developing model policies.