Missing Person Training & Higher Education Reporting

     The bill requires a person seeking certification or recertification from the peace officers standards and training board to undergo training on various missing person alerts active within the state. The department of public safety is required to create a missing person alert training program for persons seeking certification or recertification of their peace officer status.

     The bill allows a state requires an institution of higher education (institution) to either conduct a preliminary wellness assessment for no longer than 6 hours, or immediately contact a law enforcement agency if a student is reported missing. If the student is not found within the 6-hour period, the institution does not conduct a preliminary wellness assessment, or if there is evidence of a credible risk to the student's safety, the institution shall notify the institution's police department, or the nearest law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the student's current local address on file with the institution or the student's permanent address on file with the institution if the institution does not have its own police department, of the missing student.

      The preliminary wellness assessment must consist of at least the following steps: A digital contact attempt, a residential verification, and an academic and social inquiry. An institution that conducts a preliminary wellness assessment is immune from civil liability if the institution acted in good faith.

      An institution is required to adopt and publish a preliminary wellness assessment policy.

      An institution is required to maintain contemporaneous written documentation regarding the steps the institution took to complete the preliminary wellness assessment. The records are subject to certain disclosure requirements.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)