AB 228

Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to provide emergency epinephrine auto-injectors to school nurses or trained volunteer personnel, and authorizes school nurses and trained personnel to use epinephrine auto-injectors to provide emergency medical aid to persons suffering, or reasonably believed to be suffering, from an anaphylactic reaction, as provided. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to, among other things, store those emergency epinephrine auto-injectors in an accessible location upon need for emergency use and include that location in specified annual notices. Existing law authorizes a pupil to carry and self-administer prescription auto-injectable epinephrine if the school district receives specified written statements from a physician and surgeon or a physician assistant, and from the parent, foster parent, or guardian of the pupil, as specified. This bill would replace all references to epinephrine auto-injectors or auto-injectable epinephrine in the above-described provisions with references instead to epinephrine delivery systems, as defined, and would require school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to instead provide at least one type of United States Food and Drug Administration-approved epinephrine delivery system, as specified. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.