Enacts the college student suicide prevention act

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic24
• Republican3

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Lea Webb says this is needed

New York state colleges and universities are facing a deepening mental health crisis among students, marked by increases in the prevalence of thoughts of suicide and attempts. All levels of collegiate staff must be equipped by their respective institutions' policies, guidelines and training opportunities to effectively and appropriately prevent student suicide, intervene in crisis situations, and support their college communities in postvention. According to 2020 data from the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults between the ages of 10 to 24. In both the state of New York and the United States, suicide rates nearly doubled among New York State's youth from 2007 to 2018, with one in four surveyed young adults 19 to 24 years old reported having seriously considered suicide in the prior thirty days nationally. In 2023, separate reports from the Healthy Minds Network's national Healthy Minds Survey, the Gallup and Lumina Foundation's national State of Higher Education Survey, and the American College Health Associ- ation's National College Health Assessment declared that U.S. college students were experiencing historic levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, frequent emotional stress, overall moderate to severe psychological distress, and loneliness. According to 2021 data from Healthy CUNY, more than half of all City University Of New York (CUNY) students report experiencing depression or anxiety. While nearly every CUNY institution houses its own counseling center, data reported by the CUNY Board Of Trustees in the board's 2019 Financial Plan released stated that the average student-to-counselor ratio is at least 2,400:1. Until adequate staffing levels of mental health professionals can be sustainably funded, uniformly requiring higher education institutions to develop partnerships with community providers is imperative to meet the needs of students at such insti- tutions with large student-to-counselor ratios or whose student popu- lations primarily live off-campus. Establishing gatekeeper suicide prevention or mental health aid training requirements and opportunities for college residential staff and other student-facing positions has been recommended by the State University of New York (SUNY) Student Mental Health and Wellness Task Force and adopted by dozens of SUNY institutions. However, these requirements have not been modeled by many colleges and universities outside of the SUNY system, weakening preparedness frameworks for students attending other public and private institutions of higher education alike. As students most often seek emotional support from peers and those in close proximi- ty, institutions must compel residential assistants and staff to utilize the free Question, Persuade, and Refer suicide prevention training already fully funded by state university of New York for all New York state college students in order to bolster their preparedness for such emergency scenarios.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.