North Dakota Century Code Title 15.1. Elementary and Secondary Education § 15.1-07-34. Youth behavioral health and child abuse and neglect training for teachers, administrators, and ancillary staff

1. Every two years, a school district may provide a minimum of eight hours of professional development on youth behavioral health, child abuse, and child neglect to elementary, middle, and high school teachers and administrators. A school district may encourage ancillary and support staff to participate in the professional development. Based on the annual needs assessment of the school district, these hours may be designated from the following categories:

2. Each school within a district shall designate an individual as a behavioral health resource coordinator.

3. The superintendent of public instruction shall collaborate with regional education associations to disseminate information, training and instructional materials, and notice of training opportunities to school districts and nonpublic schools. The training must qualify for continuing education credits that count toward license renewal.

4. The superintendent of public instruction shall maintain the contact information of the behavioral health resource coordinator in each school.

5. Before initial licensure, a public or nonpublic school teacher, administrator, librarian, and counselor shall submit documentation to the education standards and practices board verifying completion of a mandated reporter training program for suspected child abuse or neglect. The department of health and human services shall develop and provide an online interactive training module that may be used by a college of teacher education, an individual educator, and an educational institution to fulfill the training requirement. A college, school, and regional education association may offer a mandated reporter training program that satisfy the requirements outlined in this section for subsequent trainings at the district level.