New state education health curriculum standards expand to include opioid and heroin information
Naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, is an often life-saving drug that counters the effects of an opioid overdose, and in the past few months some school districts in New York state, including the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt school districts, have made moves to stock the drug in school buildings.
“This is an epidemic that can affect any community. We need to make sure we’re ready in the event of an unfortunate incident and initiate conversations and education,” said F-M Superintendent Craig Tice.
The number of high school students who have reported using heroin, an opioid drug, has doubled between 2005 and 2011, according to the Center of Disease Control’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In June 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that would allow school districts to pass policies to allow school nurses to be trained in administering the nasal inhalant anecdote to an opioid overdose.
On June 16, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) released a supplement guiding document on heroin and opioids to assist school districts to meet requirements of modernizing health education instruction. This document includes material for students in pre-k through 12th grade to include the education instruction of heroin and opioid content within the alcohol, tobacco and other drugs curricula. In addition, the NYSED has provided opioid overdose prevention resources for school districts, which can be found online at bit.ly/24VWKEz.
The F-M Board of Education passed an amendment to policy 46000A “Administering medication to students” on Jan. 11, 2016 that expands to allow school nurses to administer Narcan. On June 1, school nurses received the proper training to administer the drug in the event of an overdose and doses have been stocked in all six school buildings.
“We as a school district need to be vigilant in ensuring the safety of our students.” Tice said. “We felt a responsibility to provide due diligence in the event of an emergency, which we hope never happens. The heroin of today is much more potent and deadly that that of yesteryears. You want to be prepared to be able to lessen the impact of this epidemic.”
Tice said the cost to the school to stock Narcan is $90 per two doses, with two doses being stocked in each school. Narcan is sold in packs of two doses because typically a second dose will be administered in the event the first dose does not have an effect.
As for the Jamesville-DeWitt School District, the decision to pass a similar policy was done because of community urging and a letter from the DeWitt Town Board that gave support for the policy. A revision to include Narcan availability to policy 7516, “Students with life-threatening health conditions,” was passed by the J-D Board of Education on June 6 and the drug will be stocked at the district’s schools starting next fall.
“The board made a policy change to accommodate the availability of Narcan in our schools as a result of a request from some community members for the district to discuss the issue,” said J-D Superintendent Alice Kendrick. “The board researched the issue and, after public discussion at multiple board meetings, approved a policy that allows the district to stock the medication to be administered by our medical nursing staff as needed.”
As another means to fight and education the community about substance abuse, J-D and F-M, along with East Syracuse Minoa, have hosted several community forums on substance abuse.
For free resources on how you can educated yourself and initiate discussions about substance abuse, go to on.ny.gov/1kdivPf.
