Ryan’s Law - (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools)
REFER TO your Board’s policy for details as approved by your district
Bill 20 – Ryan’s Law, (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools) received Royal Assent in May 2015 and is now in effect. Ryan's Law is named for Ryan Gibbons, who died Oct. 9, 2012, after suffering an asthma attack at school during recess. The explanatory note that accompanies Bill 20 outlines the required responsibilities for school boards and principals.
Principals are required to:
- develop an individual plan for each pupil who has asthma and maintain a file for each pupil with asthma. The individual plan for a pupil with asthma must include details about the monitoring and avoidance strategies and appropriate treatment, a readily accessible emergency procedure for the pupil and details relating to the storage of the pupil’s asthma medication.
- allow a pupil to carry his or her own asthma medication if the pupil has his or her parent’s or guardian’s permission. If the pupil is 16 years or older, he or she is not required to have his or her parent’s or guardian’s permission.
Additionally, with respect to the administration of asthma medication, the Bill states:
- employees of a board may be preauthorized to administer medication or supervise a pupil while the pupil takes medication in response to an asthma exacerbation, if the school has the consent of the parent, guardian or pupil.
- if an employee has reason to believe that a pupil is experiencing an asthma exacerbation, the employee may administer asthma medication, even if there is no preauthorization to do so.
The Bill also provides that no action or other proceedings for damages shall be commenced against a board employee for an act or omission done or omitted in good faith.
School boards are required to:
- establish and maintain an asthma policy, which must include, among other things, strategies to reduce risk of exposure to asthma triggers, a communication plan for the dissemination of information on asthma, regular training on recognizing asthma symptoms and managing asthma exacerbations, a requirement that every school principal develop an individual plan for each pupil who has asthma and a requirement that every school principal inform employees and others who are in direct contact on a regular basis with a pupil who has asthma about the contents of the pupil’s individual plan. The policy should also include a requirement that every school principal ensure that, upon registration, parents, guardians and pupils shall be asked to supply information about asthma and a requirement that every school principal maintain a file of current treatment and other information for each pupil with asthma, including a copy of any notes and instructions from the pupil’s health care provider and a current emergency contact list.
To read Ryan’s Law and the Explanatory Note, please click below:
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&BillID=3012.