In 2016, the South Dakota Legislature passed 2016 Senate Bill 129 requiring one hour of training in suicide awareness and prevention to obtain or renew a teaching certificate. Since adding this additional hoop for teachers to jump through, South Dakota has seen its suicide rate increase:
Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in South Dakota (SD) but was the leading cause of death for individuals aged 10-29 years and was the 7th leading cause of death among American Indians (2021). South Dakota had the 7th highest suicide rate in the nation (provisional 2021). In 2021, SD had 202 suicide deaths and a rate of 22.6 per 100,000, which was the highest ever recorded. Over the last 10 years, suicide deaths have increased by 50%, from 135 suicide deaths in 2012 to 202 in 2021 [South Dakota Department of Health, “South Dakota Suicide Surveillance Report,” September 2022, p. 5].
Suicides did tick down to 192 in 2022, but that’s still above the 161 in 2016. And the percentages of South Dakota high school students seriously considering suicide, planning suicide, and actually attempting suicide were significantly higher in 2019 and 2021 than they were in 2015 and preceding survey years.
The South Dakota Department of Education responds to this mismatch of legislative intention and outcome by proposing House Bill 1020 to revise the suicide awareness and prevention training requirements. The department apparently wants to shift the burden of enforcing this mandate from its teacher certification program to the local school districts.
HB 1020 would strike suicide awareness and prevention training from the conditions for obtaining and renewing a teaching certificate and instead require that certified teachers take an hour of such training before taking any job with a school district. Teachers would have to retake the training every five years after their previous training, or every time they go to work for a different school district.
HB 1020 shifts the administrative burden to school districts by requiring districts to retain certificates proving their teachers’ SAP training. Each certificate would have to show the teacher’s name, the training’s name, the length of the training (still mandated to be at least one hour), and the date the teacher completed the training. Districts that don’t keep those certificates on file could lose their state accreditation.
HB 1020 does not increase the training requirement. It does not direct the department or the districts to go find more effective suicide awareness and prevention training. It just shifts paperwork from Secretary Joe Graves and his busy Pierre minions to the local schools to keep track of someone else’s (2016 prime sponsor Senator Jenna Netherton carried the water for the Jason Foundation, which has pushed its teacher-training law into 21 states) brilliant idea that isn’t producing measurable results.
I’m only for this one if the hour-long requirement teaches teachers how to tell dirty jokes to prevent suicides.
ie: Who’s the most popular guy at the nudist colony? The one who can carry a cup of coffee in each hand and deliver a dozen doughnuts at the same time….
A family checks into a motel and the dad tells the front desk clerk, “I hope the porn is disabled” and the clerk says, “It’s just regular porn, you sick freak!”…
Why do mechanics blush redder than priests? Men confess to their mechanic all the time how they blew a tranny….
What’s worse than having ants in your pants? Uncles!
Hope that cheered everyone up some(:
I’d be lucky to deliver six doughnuts, My wife wishes I could just plain deliver.
HB 1020 is a bad idea. Control of teacher certification works best when it is centralized in the DOE.
There is one bright spot in SoDak’s suicide rate. Given the prospects for happiness if one plans to live here, the rate should be exponentially higher.
This is one stat magats have taken to heart and have come up with a plan. They plan to force child bearing age women to outbirth suicide deaths even if it kills the women. Aren’t they clever?
Training is wonderful makes yet makes no difference as, if a student has suicide ideation or attempts at self harm there is no one to help and no place to go for inpatient intensive treatment. It is utter BS that South Dakota administration has limited resources for children in crisis, yet we have $400 million for a new men’s prison while the DOC has an annual operating budget north of $120 million. Neither the prison nor the annual budget is treated as an investment. Let us create investments for children and their families. Higher wages, low cost health coverage, affordable housing and affordable available child care would all be a good start.
Thanks for bringing this up Francis. I spent 4 days in Rapid City in inpatient care for a mental health crisis as an adult. My experience was mainly helpful, but it could have definitely used improvement. Outside of Rapid and Sioux Falls, I guess I don’t know what the availability of those types of services would even be. I remember the most sobering thought during those 4 days was that the floor above us was for children needing mental health care.
Ben
I am glad your received care for your crisis. People in crisis should have access to quality care. An incident in my life revealed just how for juveniles the care is limited and only crisis/stabilize /refer. The refer part is lacking in South Dakota because of lack of facilities. Our incident occurred on a Monday evening/night, 1st stop local ER, followed by video evaluation. The decision was made to find a bed. At 4:30 am, I received a call from the ER, ‘A bed is available at Monument Health in Rapid City. I arrange things at home, drive to the ER got my child and begin the journey to Monument Health ER. We arrived at Monument Health ER for evaluation and I thought admission. Nope, the evaluator determined my child would not be helped by admission to a mental health crisis hospital. My child asked what that means, ‘I said we are going home’. Not the end of the story, yet a glimpse into navigating the mental health care system for juveniles in South Dakota.
I’m sorry you had such an unhelpful experience. In terms of therapy, my overall experience has been helpful, but it does seem like places are finding it harder to hire new people. The therapist I see now is great, but nearing retirement age. A previous therapist also retired while I was receiving services. Also the psychiatrist that had worked in the current practice left and they’ve had to rely on a couple of good psychiatric nurses.