REGULATION · MAY 12, 2026
NYC Just Made Mental Health Training Mandatory for SST Cards. Here’s What That Actually Means.
Local Law 10 of 2026 took effect May 3. After August 1, every new SST card applicant needs a different 2-hour course. Here is what is changing, who is affected, and the number that drove the law.
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If you hire after August 1, 2026, your new guys need a different 2-hour course. Existing cards: fine. That’s the short version of NYC’s Local Law 10 of 2026, which took effect on May 3.
The longer version is that NYC just became the first major US city to put mental health awareness on its construction safety training mandate. The reason is a number that the industry has been quiet about for too long.
Jump to: Does this apply to me? · Why this law · What the law says · Three foreman questions · What’s still unclear · Political backing · What we’re doing
1. Does This Apply to Me?
| Your situation | What you need to do |
|---|---|
| You have an active SST card. | Nothing. You’re grandfathered. You do not have to take the new course. |
| You’re a foreman or GC hiring new workers after August 1, 2026. | Your new hires need the 2-Hour Mental Health Awareness course as part of their SST hours. The old Drug & Alcohol course no longer counts after that date. |
| Your card expires on or after May 3, 2026. | You have a one-year grace period. Your card cannot be used on a jobsite during the grace period, but you have an extra year to renew without losing your training history. |
| Your card expired before May 3, 2026. | The grace period does not apply to you. Renew on the normal schedule. |
| You’re applying for your first SST card after May 3, 2026. | Between May 3 and August 1, you can take either the old Drug & Alcohol course or the new Mental Health Awareness course. After August 1, only the Mental Health Awareness course counts. |
2. Why This Law Exists
This law exists because of a number we don’t talk about enough on jobsites.
Construction and extraction workers in the United States die by suicide at a rate of 65.6 per 100,000 (males) and 25.3 per 100,000 (females). That figure comes from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published December 2023 using 2021 data. It is the highest rate of any occupational group the CDC tracks. It is roughly four times the U.S. national average for working-age adults.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 263 construction worker suicides in 2024, down from 281 in 2023. The number is moving in the right direction, but it is still a documented public health concern in the trade.
The substance use side runs alongside it. Construction workers are six to seven times more likely than other workers to die of an opioid overdose, per NIOSH. There has been some recent progress here too: construction overdose deaths fell 28.8 percent year-over-year from 2023 to 2024, according to CPWR research.
The drivers are well-documented. Brutal physical work that produces musculoskeletal injuries. Workers’ compensation claims that lead to opioid prescriptions. Long hours, weather exposure, and a culture that has historically valued silence over disclosure. The Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention (CIASP) calls construction the number one industry for suicide deaths and has been pushing for what it calls a “zero-suicide industry” since 2016.
Local Law 10 of 2026 is NYC’s first regulatory response. Two hours of training will not solve any of this on its own. The goal of the law is more modest: get every worker on a NYC construction site through a baseline conversation about warning signs, peer support, and where to find help. The hope is that the conversation, repeated tens of thousands of times across the city, shifts the culture.
3. What the Law Actually Says
Local Law 10 of 2026 amends the building code definitions of “SST Card” and “SST Supervisor Card” in §202 of the NYC Construction Code. The change is structural: a new 2-Hour Mental Health Awareness course replaces the old 2-Hour Drug & Alcohol Awareness course in the SST credit pool. The total hours required for a Worker SST card (40) and a Supervisor SST card (62) are unchanged. The mental health awareness training is two hours pulled out of the existing requirement, not two hours added on top.
Effective dates
- May 3, 2026 — effective date. The law is now in force.
- May 3 to August 1, 2026 — transition window. Approved providers may deliver either the legacy Drug & Alcohol course or the new Mental Health Awareness course during this 90-day overlap.
- After August 1, 2026. Only the Mental Health Awareness course counts toward new SST card issuance. The Drug & Alcohol course is retired.
What the curriculum has to cover
Per the statute, the course must address “mental health and wellness, suicide risk and prevention, and alcohol and substance-misuse.” The DOB does not provide course materials. Approved providers develop their own curriculum in compliance with a published requirements document, available at nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/2-hour_mentalha.pdf.
The OSHA 30 equivalence
One additional change is bundled into the same Local Law and has gotten almost no coverage. As of May 3, 2026, NYC recognizes the 40-Hour Site Safety course as equivalent to OSHA 30 for new SST card issuance, with the same 5-year lookback. We’ll publish a separate post on this. It matters for renewals and for workers coming in from out of state.
Sources: LL10 full text, DOB Service Notice (April 23, 2026), DOB LL10 FAQs.
4. Three Questions Every Foreman Is Asking
Do my current guys need to take the new course?
No. If your existing crew has active SST cards, they are not required to take the Mental Health Awareness course. The new requirement applies to new card issuance.
What about the guy I’m hiring next month?
If you’re applying for his SST card before August 1, 2026, he can take either course. If you’re applying after August 1, he needs the Mental Health Awareness course.
I have a worker whose card expires in three months. What’s his timeline?
If his card expires on or after May 3, 2026, Local Law 10 gives him a one-year grace period for renewal purposes. He cannot work on a jobsite during the grace period, but he doesn’t lose his training history if he renews within that extra year. If his card expired before May 3, 2026, the grace period does not apply and he renews on the normal schedule.
5. What’s Still Unclear
As of this writing, a few questions remain open and we expect DOB to clarify them in the coming weeks. We will update this post when they do.
- Curriculum pre-submission. The DOB FAQs state that providers must “comply with posted course requirements” but do not specify whether the curriculum must be submitted and approved before delivery. We have emailed DOB to confirm.
- Documentation retention. What records must approved providers retain for audit purposes? Existing SST documentation standards likely apply, but we are awaiting written confirmation.
- OSHA 30 equivalence and renewals. The bundled OSHA 30 equivalence change clearly applies to new card issuance. Whether it also applies to renewals is not yet stated.
This post will be revised as DOB issues guidance. Updated dates will be stamped at the top.
6. The Political and Industry Backing
The bill was sponsored by Council Member Linda Lee, who chairs the City Council’s Mental Health Committee. It passed the Council on December 4, 2025, and became law on January 5, 2026, after Mayor Adams returned it unsigned. The bill was supported across the construction industry, including statements from the two largest industry voices:
Elizabeth Crowley, President and CEO of the Building Trades Employers Association (BTEA): “Mental health training is incredibly important. We have to become more comfortable talking with one another about mental health… We’ve had an epidemic of substance abuse, especially opioids, for the past several years.”
Gary LaBarbera, President of the NYC Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC): “The industry’s suicide rate is roughly five times its fatality rate.”
On May 7, 2026 — four days after Local Law 10 took effect — the BCTC launched a parallel Peer Support Network covering 15 unions and approximately 100,000 workers. The peer counselors are union members who have been through it themselves. If you are part of a BCTC affiliate, ask your steward. The peer network is a separate channel from the training course and operates regardless of which course you took for your SST.
7. What SST.NYC Is Doing
We are submitting our 2-Hour Mental Health Awareness curriculum to DOB this week. Once the approval mechanism is confirmed, we will publish the course at our usual online, bilingual, async pricing structure. We are not pre-selling the course. We do not want to take money for something we cannot deliver until DOB confirms.
If you want to be the first to know when the course goes live, the most reliable channel right now is to bookmark the SST.NYC course catalog and check back. We will post here at the Site Safety Times when the course is live.
Spanish version of this explainer is coming. The translation will be culturally calibrated, not machine-translated, because the conversation about mental health in Spanish-speaking trades has its own context.
Stay updated
We will revise this post as DOB issues additional guidance. We will also publish the OSHA 30 equivalence breakdown and a foreman-focused operational playbook for crews navigating the transition window. Bookmark Site Safety Times.
If you or someone on your crew is struggling, the resources at the top and bottom of this post are the right places to start. You are not alone in this.
— The Site Safety Times editorial team
