Public schoolteachers would undergo more suicide prevention education under a proposal from a bipartisan group of New Jersey lawmakers.
An Assembly committee approved the measure late last year while State Senator Diane B. Allen, a Republican, introduced a similar bill in the Senate this month.
The bill requires public schoolteachers and staff members to receive two hours of suicide prevention training from a licensed health care professional every year, up from two hours over five years, as the rule stands now.
Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, a Democrat, said she and her colleagues are pursuing the change because of the rise of bullying through technology.
The requirement that teachers undergo suicide prevention education reaches back to 2005 legislation that established the current requirement.
New Jersey has a youth suicide rate of about five per 100,000 people, compared with nearly eight per 100,000 nationally in 2012, according to statistics from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families. The report defines youths as people from ages 10 to 24.
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