Sec. 1171.

(1) The board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy is encouraged to provide age-appropriate instruction for pupils and professional development for school personnel concerning the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and depression and the protective factors that help prevent suicide. The instruction and professional development shall be designed to achieve the following goals:

(a) To prevent both fatal and nonfatal suicide behaviors among youth.

(b) To increase pupil awareness of the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and depression.

(c) To improve access to appropriate prevention services for vulnerable youth groups.

(2) The board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy is encouraged to work with school personnel and local or state organizations and resources specializing in suicide prevention and awareness.

(3) The department shall develop or select model programs and materials on suicide prevention and awareness that are appropriate for the purposes of this section, such as the Michigan model for comprehensive school health education, and shall make those model programs and materials available to school districts and public school academies.

(4) If a school district or public school academy provides instruction described in subsection (1), the board of the school district or board of directors of the public school academy shall notify the parents of all pupils of each school in which the instruction is provided about the instruction using the communication method the school district or public school academy normally uses for regular communications with parents.

(5) Failure of a school district or public school academy to comply with subsection (4) does not create a cause of action or constitute a breach of any legal duty in a civil action.

(6) This section shall be known as the "Chase Edwards law".

History: Add. 2006, Act 324, Imd. Eff. July 20, 2006 Compiler's Notes: Former MCL 380.1171, which pertained to instruction on animals and birds, was repealed by Act 289 of 1995, Eff. July 1, 1996.Popular Name: Act 451