New Jersey Statutes 18A:6-112. Public school teaching staff, school employee, contracted service provider employee, regular, direct contact with students, suicide prevention instruction, required
Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 18A:6-112
- Board: means the board of education. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- County superintendent: means the County Superintendent of Schools. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- Department: means the State Department of Education. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- District: means a school district. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- person: includes corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms, partnerships and joint stock companies as well as individuals, unless restricted by the context to an individual as distinguished from a corporate entity or specifically restricted to one or some of the above enumerated synonyms and, when used to designate the owner of property which may be the subject of an offense, includes this State, the United States, any other State of the United States as defined infra and any foreign country or government lawfully owning or possessing property within this State. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
- Public school: means a school, under college grade, which derives its support entirely or in part from public funds. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- State: extends to and includes any State, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia and the Canal Zone. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
- State board: means the State Board of Education. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
- Teaching staff member: means a member of the professional staff of any district or regional board of education, or any board of education of a county vocational school, holding office, position or employment of such character that the qualifications, for such office, position or employment, require him to hold a valid and effective standard, provisional or emergency certificate, appropriate to his office, position or employment, issued by the State Board of Examiners and includes a school nurse and a school athletic trainer. See New Jersey Statutes 18A:1-1
b. Not including teaching staff members subject to the requirements of subsection a. of this section and not including licensed mental health care professionals, a school employee or an employee of a contracted service provider who has regular and direct contact with students, as determined by the board of education, shall complete a one-time training program in suicide prevention, awareness, and response identified by the Department of Education pursuant to subsection c. of this section. A person subject to the requirements of this subsection shall complete the required training program not less than 12 months from the date of the identification by the department of training programs or 12 months from the person’s date of hire, whichever occurs later.
c. The Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Human Services, the New Jersey Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council, suicide prevention experts, and interested stakeholders in the education community, shall identify training programs on suicide prevention, awareness, and response that persons subject to the requirements of subsection b. of this section may access and complete, free of charge, to fulfill the requirements. The department may enter into an agreement with one or more private entities to make a training program available, free of charge, to persons subject to the requirements of subsection b. of this section.
d. Not less than 12 months following the date of the identification by the department of the training programs or not less than 12 months from the person’s date of hire, and annually thereafter, each school district and contracted service provider shall provide to their employees who are subject to the requirements of subsection a. or b. of this section, in a hard copy paper form or in an electronic form guidelines on the school district’s reporting and suicide prevention, awareness, and response protocols including, but not limited to, contact information for each school’s designated staff who should be notified whenever an employee believes a student may be at risk for suicide.
e. A school district shall provide information concerning its compliance with the requirements of this section in the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum Statement of Assurance submitted by the district to the executive county superintendent of schools. A contracted service provider shall annually provide a statement of assurance to the school district concerning its compliance with the provisions of subsections b. and d. of this section.
f. Each person who is required pursuant to subsection a. or subsection b. of this section to complete a suicide prevention training program shall have a duty to warn and protect when the following conditions exist:
(1) a student has communicated to that person a clearly identifiable threat of imminent, serious physical violence against oneself and the circumstances are such that a reasonable person would believe the student intended to carry out the threat; or
(2) the circumstances are such that a reasonable person would believe the student intended to carry out an act of imminent, serious physical violence against oneself.
A person acting in good faith and who takes reasonable steps to discharge a duty to warn and protect shall be immune from civil and criminal liability in regard to that disclosure.
L.2005, c.310, s.2; amended 2006, c.47, s.80; 2010, c.122, s.4; 2023, c.111.