Legislation

Contacting Parents of Students at Imminent Suicide Risk

URL: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter13/section22.1-272.1/

Effective: Originally enacted 1999; most recently updated by HB 2055, effective July 1, 2025

When a licensed school employee (teacher, administrator, etc.) learns directly from a student that the student is at imminent risk of suicide, they must, as soon as possible:

1. Contact at least one parent to check whether they’re aware of the student’s mental state and whether they’ve sought or want counseling
2. Provide the parent with suicide prevention materials, which must include information on Virginia’s safe firearm storage law and may include guidance on limiting a student’s access to lethal means (firearms and medications)

Exception: If the student’s suicide risk is related to parental abuse or neglect, the employee must not contact the parent. Instead, they must report to the local or state department of social services immediately, emphasizing the need for urgent action.

Guidelines: The Board of Education, in cooperation with the Departments of Behavioral Health and Health, must develop guidelines to help staff carry out the above. These guidelines must cover how to assess risk, identify warning signs, respond to suicidal students, connect students with community resources, notify parents, and select appropriate prevention materials, including those on safe firearm storage.

School Threat Assessment Teams

URL: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter5/section22.1-79.4/

Effective: July 1, 2013; updated by HB 1071, effective July 1, 2026

Each school board must have policies for threat assessment teams, following model policies from the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety. Policies must include procedures for referring individuals to mental health services when appropriate.

Team Structure:

• Each school must have a threat assessment team with expertise in counseling, instruction, administration, and law enforcement
• Schools with a school resource officer must include at least one on the team
• New members must complete initial training; all members must complete refresher training every three years
• The division superintendent may also establish a division-level oversight committee

What Teams Do:

• Help students, faculty, and staff recognize threatening or unusual behavior
• Identify who threatening behavior should be reported to
• Implement school board threat assessment policies
• Report activity data to the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety

When a Threat Is Identified: When a team determines a student may pose a threat of violence or harm to themselves or others, they must immediately notify the division superintendent, who must then:

1. Attempt to notify the student’s parent or guardian right away
2. Provide the parent with materials on recognizing warning signs and responding, which must include information on Virginia’s safe firearm storage law and may include guidance on limiting access to lethal means (firearms and medications)

Teams may also access criminal history and health records when assessing a potential threat, but cannot share or use that information beyond the assessment purpose.

Guidelines: The Board of Education, in cooperation with the Departments of Behavioral Health and Health, must develop guidelines for selecting the materials provided to parents.

Mental Health Awareness Training for School Staff

URL: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB38 (Ammended)

Effective: July 1, 2026

Virginia already requires teachers and relevant school staff to complete mental health awareness training. This bill adds one new requirement and one guardrail:

New requirement: Training must specifically address the needs of youth populations at high risk of mental health challenges, following evidence-based best practices from the American Psychological Association.

Guardrail: Nothing in the bill or related policies can be used to justify biased or discriminatory treatment of any at-risk youth group.

Excused Absences for Mental or Behavioral Health

URL: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter14/section22.1-254/

Effective: 2020

Requires school divisions to grant excused absences to students who are absent due to mental or behavioral health needs, subject to guidelines established by the Virginia Department of Education. This removes attendance barriers for students seeking mental health care and reduces punitive consequences for students managing mental health crises.

Bullying and Cyberbullying: 988 Lifeline Promotion

URL: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB957

Effective: July 1, 2026

The Department of Education must direct school boards to encourage their schools to promote or use the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline as a resource for students experiencing bullying or cyberbullying.

Mental Health Screening Recommendations for Grades 6–12

URL: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB355

Status: [PENDING] — Awaiting Governor’s action as of May 2026; verify current status at lis.virginia.gov

The School Health Services Committee, working with the Department of Education, must study annual mental health screenings for middle and high school students and recommend best practices using evidence-based tools. Findings must be included in the Committee’s annual report.

School Board Notifications: Safe Storage of Drugs and Firearms

URL: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB201

Effective: July 1, 2026

This bill requires school boards to annually notify parents via email and text about two things:

1. The importance of securely storing prescription drugs in the home
2. Parents’ legal responsibility to safely store any firearms in the home

Each notification must also include relevant Virginia laws on safe firearm storage and child access, plus current statistics on youth firearm fatalities from the CDC or a comparable national source. School boards must make these notifications available in multiple languages on their websites.

Inpatient Discharge Disclosures to School Mental Health Staff

URL: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB171

Effective: January 1, 2027 [PENDING]

When a minor K–12 student is discharged from inpatient treatment, two disclosure scenarios apply:

1. Optional disclosure (parent opt-in): If the facility determines the student will need additional educational services after discharge, parents may choose to have that determination shared with a mental health professional at the student’s school or school division.
2. Required disclosure: If the facility determines — based on what the student communicated during treatment — that the student poses a specific and immediate threat of serious injury or death to an identified person or persons at the time of discharge, the facility must share that determination with a school or school division mental health professional.

In either case, facilities may not delay a student’s discharge simply for the purpose of making these disclosures.

Raising Awareness for Youth Suicide Prevention (RAYS) Act

URL: https://www.smith.senate.gov/u-s-senators-tina-smith-jim-banks-introduce-new-bipartisan-youth-suicide-prevention-legislation/

Citation: Introduced in the House (Rep. Troy Carter et al.) and Senate (Sens. Smith and Banks), 2025–2026

Status: [PENDING] — Introduced January 2026 (House) and March 2026 (Senate)

This bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Jim Banks (R-IN), would require middle and high schools to print crisis line contact information on student ID cards — specifically the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the Crisis Text Line, and a state or local hotline selected by the school, if available.

Schools that do not issue physical ID cards, or for which cost or administrative burden is a barrier, may instead publish the information on a publicly accessible school website.

The bill has bipartisan cosponsors including Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and is notable as a federal analog to Virginia’s existing requirement that public colleges and universities print 988 on student ID cards.