Requires certain persons attend the electronic cigarette and vaping prevention, awareness and control program; requires the department of health to contact the parents and/or guardians of any person enrolled in secondary education who is found to be using or in possession of an electronic cigarette or vapor product while less than twenty-one years of age.
This bill amends the Public Health Law to expand New York’s electronic cigarette and vaping prevention, awareness, and control program. It directs the Department of Health, in consultation with the Department of Education, to maintain educational materials for students, parents, and school personnel about the health risks of vaping and to develop age-appropriate tools and anti-vaping outreach materials for schools.
The bill also creates a mandatory attendance requirement for secondary school students under age 21 who are found using or possessing an electronic cigarette or vapor product. In those cases, the department must notify the student’s parent or guardian and require both the student and, generally, the parent or guardian to attend the prevention program. The bill allows exceptions where school personnel determine that parental notification or attendance would endanger the student’s health, safety, or welfare or would otherwise not be in the student’s best interests, and it permits alternative supportive services in those situations.
The bill would add a new enforcement-and-education component to existing vaping prevention law by making program participation mandatory for certain students and, usually, their parents or guardians. It would affect the Department of Health, the Department of Education, secondary schools, students under 21 found with vaping products, and families, while also requiring the department to issue implementation guidelines and provide flexible attendance options such as in-person, virtual, or alternative formats. The bill expressly prohibits suspension, expulsion, or referral to law enforcement solely for failure to attend, and it bars penalties where nonattendance is due to documented hardship.
The bill’s structure suggests a generally public-health-oriented approach focused on education rather than punishment. By emphasizing prevention, parental involvement, flexible attendance options, and protections against school discipline or law-enforcement referral, it appears designed to be framed as supportive and remedial. No committee transcript or vote record was provided, so there is no direct evidence of recorded support or opposition in the available materials.
The main points of contention are likely to be the mandatory nature of attendance, the requirement that parents or guardians participate, and the scope of school/department involvement when a student is found with vaping products. Potential concerns include privacy, family circumstances, and whether compulsory participation is an effective or burdensome response. The bill addresses some of these concerns by allowing exceptions when parental involvement could harm the student, by permitting alternative completion methods for hardship, and by prohibiting punitive school discipline or law-enforcement action solely for nonattendance.