Pupil health: Trauma, Grief, and Loss Pilot Program.

Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for the work. Existing law requires a school of a school district or county office of education and a charter school to notify pupils and parents or guardians of pupils no less than twice during the school year on how to initiate access to available pupil mental health services on campus or in the community, or both, as provided. This bill would, subject to moneys being appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the bill, establish the Trauma, Grief, and Loss Pilot Program, to be administered by the State Department of Education. The bill would authorize school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools maintaining grades 9 to 12, inclusive, that meet certain criteria to apply to the department for a one-time multiyear pilot program grant award for the 2021–22 to the 2025–26 school year, inclusive. The bill would require a local educational agency that has received a pilot program grant award to, on or before December 31, 2021, either (1) designate at least one trauma, grief, and loss counselor to be generally accessible to pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, at a schoolsite of the local educational agency during school hours or (2) designate an existing employee as a trauma, grief, and loss counselor, or enter into a memorandum of understanding with a county agency or community-based organization for a trauma, grief, and loss counselor employed by the agency or organization, to provide trauma, grief, and loss counseling services to pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive. The bill would require a local educational agency participating in the pilot program to annually submit a report to the department within 30 days of the end of each school year of the pilot program that summarizes certain information relating to the pilot program, and would require the department, following the conclusion of the pilot program, to submit to the Legislature and post on its internet website all the information the department receives in the annual reports.