Department of Health.
The Department of Health (DOH) administers various programs and services that promote public health through disease and injury prevention, immunization, newborn screening, professional and health care facility licensing, and public education. The DOH is also involved in the promotion of safe and healthy schools, including duties related to environmental health, immunization, and sexual health education.
Information about Behavioral Health Resources.
Recently enacted legislation has established new public school requirements for providing students with information about behavioral health resources. Legislation adopted in 2020 (Substitute House Bill 2589, enacted as chapter 39, Laws of 2020), requires public schools that issue student identification cards, staff identification cards, or both, to print on the cards:
Legislation adopted in 2021 (Substitute House Bill 1373, enacted as chapter 167, Laws of 2021), requires public schools that maintain websites to publish on their homepage specific information about behavioral health resources, including contact information for suicide prevention organizations, and organizations specializing in depression, anxiety, or counseling for adolescents.
The 2021 legislation also directed public schools to post information on social media websites used by school districts for the purpose of notifying students, families, and the public of the behavioral health resources published on their website homepages.
Educational Service Districts.
Washington has nine regionally based educational service districts (ESDs) that provide cooperative informational services to local school districts and assist the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education in the performance of their duties. Among other duties, the ESDs serve as a depository and distribution center for instructional materials and assist school districts in the preparation of their budgets.
Department of Health.
The DOH must post and periodically revise on its website information about substance use trends, overdose symptoms and response, and the secure storage of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, and firearms and ammunition. The information must be provided or otherwise made accessible to school districts, charter schools, state-tribal compact schools, and ESDs, and must be formatted for the needs of public school students and families.
The posted information must be in the form of a template that can be revised as necessary and that:
Education Entities—Information from the Department of Health.
Within existing resources, each school district that maintains a website must post a prominent link on their homepage, and the homepage of each school within the district, to information from the DOH that addresses substance use trends, overdose symptoms and response, and the secure storage of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, and firearms and ammunition.
Each school district, for the purpose of informing students, families, and other persons about available health and safety resources, must also make the DOH information accessible through other internet-based communications, such as social media accounts used by the district, and through other digital and nondigital communications of the district. The required information postings may be made multiple times annually and no less frequently than quarterly.
The website and other communication requirements for school districts pertaining to the delineated information from the DOH applies also to charter schools, state-tribal compact schools, and, with some modifications, ESDs.
(In support) Stories about the social-emotional journey that our youth are on are very prevalent. Many students are trying to face a daily life that is different from what previous generations have known. Policymakers see the journey and data, and know that firearms and drugs are leading causes of death for children and that the number of incidents keeps increasing. This bill is seeking support for a commonsense approach: keeping our children safer by keeping items that can harm them safely stored.
Some parents teach good gun safety practices, but others do not. This bill will help to keep children safer by avoiding tragedies through the promotion of secure storage practices. This bill offers inexpensive and effective solutions.
Overdose deaths are skyrocketing, especially with fentanyl and in communities of color. Securely storing drugs and firearms will help parents and students.
This bill is one important step to help prevent injury and death that can occur when medicines and firearms are not properly secured. Suicide is a leading cause of death for youth in the state and is often impulsive. Schools are a natural mechanism of information distribution, and these informational resources will save lives.
More than 75 percent of firearms used in youth suicide attempts and unintentional injuries were stored in the residence of the victim, a relative, or a friend. Spokane schools, in partnership with others, are sharing information about the secure storage of firearms, and the Legislature should pass this proposal for a statewide implementation of that approach.
(Opposed) None.