§ 15.1-07-34 — Youth behavioral health and child abuse and neglect training for teachers, administrators, and ancillary staff

administrators, and ancillary staff.
1. Every two years, a school district may provide a minimum of eight hours of
professional development on youth behavioral health, child abuse, and child neglect to
elementary, middle, and high school teachers and administrators. A school district may
encourage ancillary and support staff to participate in the professional development.
Based on the annual needs assessment of the school district, these hours may be
designated from the following categories:
a. Trauma;
b. Social and emotional learning, including resiliency;
c. Suicide prevention;
d. Bullying;
e. Understanding of the prevalence and impact of youth behavioral health wellness
on family structure, education, juvenile services, law enforcement, and health
care and treatment providers;
f. Knowledge of behavioral health symptoms and risks;
g. Awareness of referral sources and evidence-based strategies for appropriate
interventions;
h. Child protective services;
i. Other evidence-based strategies to reduce risk factors for students; or
j. Current or new evidence-based behavior prevention or mitigation techniques.
2. Each school within a district shall designate an individual as a behavioral health
resource coordinator.
3. The superintendent of public instruction shall collaborate with regional education
associations to disseminate information, training and instructional materials, and notice
of training opportunities to school districts and nonpublic schools. The training must
qualify for continuing education credits that count toward license renewal.
4. The superintendent of public instruction shall maintain the contact information of the
behavioral health resource coordinator in each school.
5. Before initial licensure, a public or nonpublic school teacher, administrator, librarian,
and counselor shall submit documentation to the education standards and practices
board verifying completion of a mandated reporter training program for suspected child
abuse or neglect. The department of health and human services shall develop and
provide an online interactive training module that may be used by a college of teacher
education, an individual educator, and an educational institution to fulfill the training
requirement. A college, school, and regional education association may offer a
mandated reporter training program that satisfy the requirements outlined in this
section for subsequent trainings at the district level.