HB 1375

This bill enacts the "Tennessee Mental Health Volunteer Alliance Act, "" which requires the department of mental health and substance abuse services to create and manage a statewide volunteer database of qualified mental health professionals for the purpose of volunteering to provide on-site or virtual mental healthcare services at a school or public facility immediately after an act of gun violence or a significant traumatic event or disaster has taken place in or around the school or public facility for the benefit of students, educators, and staff. The department must create a volunteer application process for qualified ment al health professionals to be listed in the database, to be named the ""Tennessee Mental Health Volunteer Alliance."" This bill requires the commissioner, or the commissioner's designee, to (i) a ct as the director of the database; ( ii ) v erify the licensure qualifications of a qualified mental health professional who volunteers and applies to be included in the database; ( iii ) i nitiate the requests for volunteers from the database following a n event as described above ; or a request made pursuant to this bill ; and ( iv ) t rack all service hours and hourly rates provided by the qualified mental health professionals as described in this bill . REQUEST FOR QUALIFIED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS This bill authorizes the lead official at a school or public facility to submit a request for one or more qualified mental health professionals from the database that must specify ( i ) t he type of qualified mental health professionals needed; ( ii ) t he number of qualified mental health professionals needed; and ( iii ) t he durat ion of the requested services. The services provided by a qualified mental health professional under this bill are an in-kind contribution or pro bono services, and a qualified mental health professional must submit service hours and the professional's hourly rate to the department. AUTHORIZED USES FOR FUNDS Subject to appropriations, this bill requires a recurring amount of $250, 000 to be used to fund the database's administrative overhead and any additional costs, including virtual counseling servic es software, reimbursing qualified mental health professionals for travel expenses with the federal mileage rate, and lodging when providing on-site services, if requested. The fund must reimburse the school or public office for any direct costs incurred for using this database. The unexpended balance of such funds remaining at the end of a fiscal year do not revert to the general fund but must be transferred and deposited into the school safety fund, to be expended solely for the purposes of that fund as described below. Rulemaking The department of mental health and substance abuse services is authorized to promulgate rules to effectuate this fund . SCHOOL SAFETY FUND This bill establishes a school safety fund to provide funding to schools in thi s state for the sole purpose of purchasing safety technology and equipment. The school safety fund must consist of ( i ) m onies not utilized in a fiscal year by the Tennessee Mental Health Volunteer Alliance Act and deposited to the fund; ( ii ) a ppropriation s made by the general assembly; and ( iii ) o ther monies, public or private, by way of gift or grant. The department of education must administer the fund and distribute the monies to schools based on criteria established by the department. Annual Report This bill provides that a ll expenditures from the fund are subject to review in the form of an annual report submitted on or before January 1 of each year by the commissioner of education to the education committee of the senate and the committee of the house of representatives having jurisdiction over education matters. Rulemaking This bill authorizes t he department of education and the department of mental health and substance abuse services to promulgate rules to effectuate this fund ."