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H7617ASchool Safety

Health and Safety - Health and Safety of Pupils

This bill allows school staff and bus drivers to treat severe allergic reactions using FDA-approved epinephrine nasal sprays.

Introduced63 Yea0 Nay12 Not voting
Population
Affected
15
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 11, 2026Committee House Education

Plain-English Summary

This bill amends the existing law regarding the treatment of allergic emergencies in schools. Previously, the law specified that trained school personnel and bus drivers could administer epinephrine using auto-injectors. This update broadens the types of allowed epinephrine treatments to include any delivery devices approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, specifically adding epinephrine nasal sprays and cartridges. The bill ensures that school staff can use these newer, non-needle methods to treat students experiencing severe allergic reactions while maintaining their protection from civil liability.

For younger readers

Sometimes kids have severe allergies to things like peanuts or bee stings. When this happens at school, teachers or bus drivers need to give them special medicine called epinephrine to help them breathe. Before, this medicine only came in a shot with a needle. Now, there are new ways to give the medicine, like a spray that goes into the nose. This new rule says that schools are allowed to use these new nose sprays to help kids in an emergency, instead of only being allowed to use needles.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Students with severe allergiesParents of students with allergiesSchool nursesSchool bus driversSchool personnel
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Expands access to life-saving medical care in public schools by allowing the use of newer, less invasive epinephrine delivery methods like nasal sprays.
  • Protects the safety and well-being of all students, particularly those with severe allergies who rely on school personnel and bus drivers for emergency medical assistance.
  • Reduces the barrier to administering emergency medication, as school staff and bus drivers may be more comfortable and quicker to use a nasal spray compared to a needle auto-injector.
  • Does not include provisions to provide state funding to schools to purchase these newly approved, potentially expensive epinephrine delivery devices, possibly straining underfunded public school districts.
  • Continues to place the financial burden of supplying and replacing prescription allergy medications entirely on the students' parents or guardians, which disproportionately impacts low-income families.
  • Focuses on individual medical responses rather than addressing broader systemic issues, such as improving overall school nurse staffing levels or mandating comprehensive public health funding for allergy prevention in schools.
For Conservatives
  • Maintains the requirement that parents or guardians bear the financial responsibility for supplying and replacing their child's prescription medication, avoiding new government spending or entitlement programs.
  • Preserves and extends existing liability protections for school personnel and private school bus contractors, protecting them from frivolous lawsuits if they administer the medication with ordinary negligence.
  • Accommodates free-market pharmaceutical innovations by automatically allowing any FDA-approved epinephrine delivery device, reducing the need for future legislative updates every time a new product is invented.
  • Expands the scope of medical responsibilities placed on school bus drivers and monitors, which could be viewed as an overreach of their primary job duties.
  • Creates a standing mandate for school departments to incorporate these new medical procedures into their regulations, increasing administrative burdens on local school districts.
  • Grants broad legal immunity for "ordinary negligence" to public employees and private contractors, which restricts individuals' rights to seek legal recourse and damages in the civil court system.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

2 versions
Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 8 additions · 1 deletion

SECTION 1. Section 16-21-22 of the General Laws in Chapter 16-21 entitled "Health and Safety of Pupils" is hereby amended to read as follows: 16-21-22. Allergic emergencies — Anaphylaxis — Use of epinephrine — Immunity for those administering.

(a) The department of elementary and secondary education and the department of health shall incorporate into their policies, rules, and regulations pertaining to school health programs a procedure for addressing incidents of anaphylaxis (exaggerated allergic reaction) in order to provide for the health and safety of children who have been medically identified as being prone to anaphylaxis or who show evidence of anaphylaxis. The policies, rules, and regulations shall include a procedure whereby a parent or legal guardian of any child may expressly authorize the school department and school bus drivers and monitors to administer the epinephrine on his or her child in case of an emergency and ensures that the epinephrine is kept in a conspicuous place, readily available, and that their proper use is made known to school personnel. School bus drivers and monitors shall receive training in the administration of epinephrine. To treat a case of anaphylaxis, trained school bus drivers and/or monitors shall administer the epinephrine auto-injector delivery devices approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or epinephrine nasal spray, as applicable, to an identified student.

(b) The policies, rules, and regulations shall also include a procedure to allow children to carry and use prescription inhalers, and auto-injectable epinephrine, while in school, at a school- sanctioned function or event, or in transit to and from school or school-sanctioned function or event by the school bus service provider; when prescribed by a licensed individual with prescriptive privileges. Children who need to carry prescription inhalers and/or auto-injectable epinephrine shall provide the school and the school bus service provider with medical documentation that the inhaler and/or auto-injectable epinephrine has been legitimately prescribed and that the child needs to carry it on his or her person due to a medical condition, but no child shall be disciplined solely for failure to provide this documentation in advance.

(c) Parents shall provide a doctor’s letter or prescription notifying the school and the school bus service provider of their child’s allergy and the need to administer epinephrine in an allergic emergency.

(d) No school teacher, school administrator, or school healthcare personnel, school bus driver, school bus monitor, or any other school personnel shall be liable for civil damages which may result from acts or omissions in use of the epinephrine which may constitute ordinary negligence; nor shall the school personnel mentioned in this subsection be liable for civil damages which may result from acts or omissions in the use of prescription inhalers by children which may constitute ordinary negligence. This immunity does not apply to acts or omissions constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton conduct. For the purposes of determining immunity from liability under subsection (d) only, the term “other school personnel” shall include any private entity providing school bus services and individual school bus drivers and monitors employed or otherwise engaged by such school bus service entities.

(e) School physicians may execute standing orders and prescriptions for school nurses to use epinephrine when there are symptoms of anaphylaxis. The school department may permit each school within their jurisdiction to maintain epinephrine in cartridge injections for the purpose of emergency first aid to students who experience allergic reactions. The department’s policies, rules, and regulations shall also include the conditions and procedures for the storage and administration of epinephrine for the purpose of emergency first aid to students who experience allergic reactions.

(f) The student’s parent or guardian is responsible for supplying and replacing, when necessary, all prescription medication that is authorized pursuant to this section.

(g) The administration, use, or maintenance of epinephrine provided for under the provisions of this section shall be deemed to include epinephrine delivery devices approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, cartridges, and nasal sprays.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.