SAN JOSE, CA - In response to the recent passage of
Senate Bill 972 and the addendum to California Education Code section 215.5, California Public Schools, charter, and private schools that serve pupils in grades 7 to 12, and higher education institutions, are required to include suicide hotline numbers and the Crisis Text Line number on one or other side of the student identification cards.
In Santa Clara County, the new ID cards must include:
- The telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255.
- Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Crisis Text Line which can be accessed by texting RENEW to 741741.
- County Suicide Crisis Telephone line: 1-855-278-4204; in Spanish: 1-888-628-9454.
The bill requires schools and public or private institutions that have a supply of unissued, noncompliant identification cards as of January 1, 2019, to issue the noncompliant identification cards until that supply is depleted.
The new cards should be issued commencing July 1, 2019.
To coincide with the new regulation SCC Behavioral Health is printing stickers, flyers, and other outreach materials available to schools. The flyer is already available for download at
www.sccbhd.org/suicideprevention.
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