SB191 enacts the “Seizure Safe Schools Act” and adds new provisions to the Public School Code governing how schools must respond to students with seizure disorders. The bill requires the Public Education Department to adopt rules for annual seizure-safety training for school employees and bus drivers, and separate training for school nurses and designated seizure care personnel. It also requires each school attended by a student with a seizure disorder to have at least two trained employees available to administer seizure rescue medications and other prescribed seizure-related treatments, including use of devices such as vagus nerve stimulation and responsive neurostimulation devices.
The bill requires parents or guardians to provide a seizure action plan for a student seeking seizure care at school. That plan must include physician or advanced practice nurse orders, symptom descriptions, accommodations for school activities, relevant medical issues, contact information, and a release allowing information sharing with school staff and health providers. Schools must ensure that students receive the care specified in the plan during school hours and at school-sponsored activities, trips, extracurriculars, and certain bus rides. The bill also authorizes trained seizure care personnel, who are not required to be health care practitioners, to provide this care and states that doing so is not the practice of nursing.
Impact
SB191 would create new statutory duties for school districts, charter schools, and private schools that serve students in person, as well as for the Public Education Department and the Department of Health in developing training rules. It would expand school health obligations by requiring seizure-specific planning, staff training, and access to trained personnel for medication administration and device assistance. The bill also clarifies that seizure care personnel may perform these tasks without being licensed health care practitioners and provides civil and professional liability protection for school employees acting with ordinary care under the act. Existing federal protections and obligations under IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA are preserved.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee discussion or votes, the measure appears to be framed as a student health and safety bill with a generally supportive policy orientation. Its structure emphasizes mandatory training, individualized planning, and access to care, suggesting a protective approach for students with seizure disorders and a desire to standardize school responses across settings. No contrary testimony or vote history is available in the provided materials to indicate opposition or amendment-driven controversy.
Contention
The main potential points of contention are the staffing and implementation requirements imposed on schools, especially the mandate that each school with a student who has a seizure disorder have at least two trained employees and that care be available during activities, trips, and some bus rides. Schools may also scrutinize the training burden, the need to identify volunteers when trained staff are unavailable, and the interaction between these duties and existing nursing scope-of-practice rules. Another possible issue is liability and whether the act sufficiently protects employees while ensuring adequate medical care, though the bill expressly limits liability and states that seizure care personnel are not practicing nursing.