This bill adds a new legislative findings section about student mental health and harassment and amends existing law (RCW 28A.300.479) to require the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), subject to available appropriations, to create and publish on its website a list of professional development resources for school district staff. The change is a procedural requirement imposed on OSPI and a statutory amendment plus added findings; it does not create a new crime or change penalties. OSPI must list professional development resources on specified topics: social-emotional learning; trauma-informed practices; recognition and response to emotional or behavioral distress; consideration of adverse childhood experiences; mental health literacy; antibullying strategies; and culturally sustaining practices. The resources must consider the experiences of “historically marginalized and underrepresented groups,” with illustrative categories such as sensory, mental, and physical disabilities; neurodivergence; gender identity and expression; sexual orientation; homelessness; race and ethnicity; religion; national origin; and immigration status. The list must include opportunities and resources identified by the social-emotional learning committee created under RCW 28A.300.477. Affected parties named in the bill include OSPI, the social-emotional learning committee, school district staff, and the listed historically marginalized student groups. The bill was prefiled 01/08/2025, read the first time 01/13/2025, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education. The text contains editing markup so the exact words changed in the RCW are unclear, and the bill does not specify appropriation amounts, a timeline or effective date, or details about the social-emotional learning committee beyond its statutory reference.

If enacted, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction would be expected to compile and post on its website a single list of professional development resources for school district staff covering social-emotional learning, trauma-informed and mental-health-related practices, antibullying strategies, and culturally sustaining approaches, and that list must include materials identified by the existing social-emotional learning committee and take into account the experiences of various historically marginalized student groups. For districts and individual staff, that likely means easier access to a curated set of training options aligned with those topics and greater visibility for resources intended to support students with disabilities, different genders and sexual orientations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, homelessness, and other listed circumstances. The practical burden and timing fall on OSPI and depend on whether the Legislature provides specific funding; the bill ties the work to “available appropriations,” so OSPI would only do this if money is provided, and no appropriation amount or deadline is specified here. That creates uncertainty about when the list would appear and how much OSPI must spend to prepare and maintain it; the social-emotional learning committee will have its identified resources incorporated, but other implementation details and the bill’s effective date are not clear from these facts.