SECTION 1. Chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:

Section 98. (a) The department of elementary and secondary education shall adopt rules to require in school health care providers and any holder of, or applicant for, an educator’s license in the commonwealth to receive at least 2 hours of evidence based in-service suicide awareness and prevention training once every other year. This training shall be provided within the framework of existing in-service training programs offered by the department or as part of required professional development activities.

(1) Staff members subject to the training under paragraph (a) initially hired during a school year in which the training is not required, shall be provided with suicide prevention and identification materials for review by the local district within thirty days of being hired.

(b) The department shall, in consultation with the department of public health, the department of mental health, and suicide prevention experts, develop a list of approved training materials to fulfill the requirements of this section. The approved training materials must:

(1) be evidence based; and

(2) demonstrated to be an effective or promising program.

(c) On or before December 31, 2022, a school of a school district or county office of education and a charter school shall be required to have at least one mental health professional, as defined, for every 400 pupils generally accessible to pupils on campus during school hours.