Publisher's summary
We audited the following 20 school districts (Districts) to determine whether the Districts used resources to provide the mental health component of the New York Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE Act) training requirement to staff: Bellville-Henderson CSD, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake CSD, Canandaigua City SD, Coxsackie Athens CSD, Crown Point CSD, Dover UFSD, Eden CSD, Goshen CSD, Greenport UFSD, Harborfields CSD, Livonia CSD, Malone CSD, Port Washington UFSD, Rye Neck UFSD, Schalmont CSD, Seaford UFSD, Unadilla Valley CSD, Waverly CSD, Wellsville CSD and West Genesee CSD. The 20 Districts we examined did not provide mental health training to all staff for the 2020-21 school year by September 15, 2020, as required by New York State Education Department (SED) regulations.
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Mental Health Training
The SAVE Act was introduced to help improve school safety. The SAVE Act
requires school districts to develop a comprehensive district-wide school safety
plan (safety plan) that addresses crisis intervention, emergency responses and
management. The safety plan developed by each district must include, among
other things, policies and procedures for annual school safety training for staff and
students. School districts must certify to the SED Commissioner that all staff have
undergone the school safety training, which must include a component on mental
health.1 SED requires that the certification to the SED Commissioner states that
all staff have undergone the annual training by September 15 of each year.
What Is the Mental Health Component of the SAVE Act Training for All
Staff?
The SAVE Act requires all districts to provide staff annual emergency response
plan training with a component on mental health. School personnel are often
the first to notice mental health problems, and, to support the mental health of a
district’s students.
While the SAVE Act and SED requirements state that the annual school safety
training must include a component on mental health, neither the SAVE Act nor
SED requirements directly address what topics should be included within the
mental health training component. Rather, SED issued guidance to all school
districts that included resources relating to mental health. Included within the
resources was information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) addressing “what educators should know” regarding warning
signs of mental health problems, “whom to turn to,” and “how to access crisis
support and other mental health services” (Figure 1).
FIGURE 1
What Educators Should Knowa
a) United States Department of Health and Human Services
1 8 NYCRR Section 155.17[c][1][xiii]
2 Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller