Pupil health: school employee and pupil training: excused absences: youth mental and behavioral health.

(1) Existing law, notwithstanding the requirement that each person between 6 and 18 years of age who is not otherwise exempted is subject to compulsory full-time education, requires a pupil to be excused from school for specified types of absences, including, among others, if the absence was due to the pupil's illness. This bill would include, within the meaning of an absence due to a pupil's illness, an absence for the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health. The bill would require the State Board of Education to update its illness verification regulations, as necessary, to account for including a pupil's absence for the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health within the scope of this provision. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local educational entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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, contingent on an appropriation made for these purposes, would require the State Department of Education, on or before January 1, 2023, to recommend best practices and identify evidence-based, as defined, and evidence-informed, as defined, training programs for schools to address youth behavioral health, including, but not necessarily limited to, staff and pupil training, as specified. The bill would define a local educational agency for purposes of these provisions to mean a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 48205 of the Education Code proposed by AB 516 to be operative only if this bill and AB 516 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.