Evidence-Based Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2026

Key Points

• This bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to run demonstration programs that develop, test, and evaluate evidence-based strategies to prevent suicide among children and adolescents, with a focus on school settings.
• Schools are the primary focus because they are where warning signs often first appear. The bill requires coordination with state, tribal, and local education agencies and public health organizations.
• Funding would go to states, school districts, tribal organizations, and colleges through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements. The bill sets a tiered evidence standard, prioritizing interventions backed by strong research while also reserving funding for promising newer approaches.
• The program tracks a wide range of outcomes beyond just mental health, including grades, attendance, student well-being, resilience, and school connectedness, to measure whether the interventions are actually working.
• The program would be authorized from fiscal years 2027 through 2032, with annual reports to Congress starting 90 days after enactment. However, no specific dollar amount is authorized, leaving actual funding levels to future appropriations.