During the 2019 legislative session, SB 282 was passed to address the critically important issue of suicide prevention of school-age children in New Hampshire. SB 282 was created out of the recognition that suicide is a complex issue that necessitates resources from schools, families, and the community to all be harnessed in an appropriate and timely fashion in order to prevent suicide.

The sole purpose of this new law is to reduce the number of suicides that are occurring in New Hampshire’s school-age population. The bill seeks to accomplish this by ensuring that suicide prevention education and training be available to school personnel, students, and their parents by utilizing age-appropriate and evidence-based materials in this subject area.

This law applies to all public schools and chartered public schools across the state and became effective in July 2020. This requirement has also generated the ConVal District School Board suicide prevention policy JLDBB.