Amends TCA Title 49.

ON APRIL 28, 2021, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 739, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and enacts the "K-12 Mental Health Trust Fund Act." This amendment: (1) Establishes the K-12 mental health endowment fund to provide mental health supports to students in primary and secondary schools in this state. The fund will be administered and funded in accordance with the following terms and conditions: (A) The fund is an irrevocable trust that the state treasurer will administer. The trust consists of the K-12 mental health endowment account and the K-12 mental health special reserve account; (B) The trustees of the trust are as follows: the state treasurer, or the treasurer's designee; the comptroller of the treasury, or the comptroller's designee; the secretary of state, or the secretary's designee; and the commissioner of finance and administration, or the commissioner's designee. The state treasurer, or the treasurer's designee, serves as chair of the trustees and will preside over all meetings and proceedings of the trustees; (2) Authorizes the trustees to create a nonprofit corporation or incorporate the fund as a nonprofit corporation and, after incorporation, to apply for tax exempt status; (3) Authorizes the trust to invest in any security or investment permitted by applicable laws, rules, and regulations, and that is not otherwise prohibited by the state constitution; provided, that investments made by the trust must be governed by the investment policies and guidelines adopted by the trustees of the trust. The state treasurer will be responsible for the investment and reinvestment of trust funds in accordance with the policies and guidelines established by the trustees; (4) Specifies that, subject to appropriation, the trust must be funded in fiscal year 2021-2022 by an initial deposit; that 90 percent of the initial deposit constitutes the principal of the trust, which must be placed in the K-12 mental health endowment account; and that 10 percent of the initial deposit must be placed in the K-12 mental health special reserve account. This amendment provides that trust income will not increase, or constitute an addition to, the principal of the trust, but will be placed in the K-12 mental health special reserve account; provided, that trust income may be used to pay expenses incurred in administering and investing the trust assets. Also, subsequent transfers of funds to the trust after the initial deposit will not increase, or constitute an addition to, the principal of the trust, and must be placed in the K-12 mental health special reserve account of the trust. Such funds may include moneys appropriated by the general assembly, received from the United States or any agencies of the United States, or received from any other source, including contributions from public or private sources. The principal of the trust in the K-12 mental health endowment account will not be expended for any purpose; (5) Provides that the funds in the K-12 mental health special reserve account will be available to the department of mental health and substance abuse services for allocation and distribution, in consultation with the department of education, but such funds must be expended only for mental or behavioral health services or treatment for K-12 students or for an assessment to review current mental and behavioral health resources for K-12 students that are available in each county; (6) Provides that, subject to applicable law, the funds transferred to this trust, including funds in the K-12 mental health endowment account and the K-12 mental health special reserve account, may be commingled with, co-invested with, and invested or reinvested with other assets transferred to the trust and other funds that are not a part of the trust, including, but not limited to the state pooled investment fund. The state treasurer must account for such trust funds in one or more separate accounts; and (7) Specifies that funds placed in the K-12 mental health special reserve account are available for allocation and distribution as authorized in this amendment only to the extent that funds are available in the K-12 mental health special reserve account. The state will not be liable for any amount in excess of such sum. All requests for withdrawals for payment that are presented to the state treasurer must be used only to fund mental or behavioral health services or treatment for K-12 students, or an assessment to review current mental and behavioral health resources for K-12 students that are available in each county. Requests for withdrawals must not be commingled with requests for withdrawals presented to the state treasurer for any other purpose, and the individual or entity requesting the withdrawal of funds must attest to same upon presentation of the request for withdrawal to the state treasurer.