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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 1, 2017 01:53 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Andrew E. Dinniman |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | School Aged Children Opioid Awareness Education Program |
| I plan to re-introduce SB1212, legislation establishing a new Section 1528 (Child Opioid Awareness Education) in the Public School Code to require school entities to incorporate child opioid awareness education into their curriculum for students in 6th through 12th grades. This bill would require school entities to develop age-appropriate child opioid awareness education programs, include training in child opioid awareness education in their professional development plans and, to provide 4 hours of training every 5 years to professional educators assigned to teach child opioid awareness education. This bill would also require the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Health, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and at least one organization addressing child opioid awareness education to develop a model child opioid awareness education curriculum; make the curriculum available to school entities; and, compile, develop and post on its publicly accessible Internet website recommended guidelines and materials to train professional educators in child opioid awareness education. The bill also provides that the department may use materials already publicly available to develop the curriculum and materials to train professional educators. The bill further provides that school entities may use the model curriculum developed by the Department. It also specifies that training provided to professional educators may be used to satisfy continuing professional education requirements. The legislation is scheduled to take effect in 60 days and it will have no adverse fiscal impact on Commonwealth Funds. The cost to the Department of Education to develop child opioid awareness education curriculum and guidelines and materials for training professional educators should be minimal and can be accomplished within its general operating budget as the legislation allows for the use of materials that are already publicly available. This bill passed unanimously in the Senate last session but received no action in the House. Action, including an education component, is imperative considering that 3500 people, many of whom were teenagers and young adults, died in 2015, a 30 percent increase over 2014. I hope you will consider co-sponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as SB535