BUT! The Kentucky School Boards Association and (they wish it were secretly) a large union allegedly representing teachers killed the important part of the legislation.

House Bill 172 sailed through both the State House and Senate and is headed to Governor Steve Beshear’s desk to be signed into law. But language requiring schools stock emergency EpiPens was killed. Much like your child will be when they develop a sudden allergy in the middle of nowhere and have to wait 45 minutes on an ambulance to arrive. Now, rather than mandating epinepherine be on-hand, it only encourages schools to have it available in an emergency kit.

The basics:

• Encourages schools to keep at least 2 epinephrine auto-injectors on campus in case of emergency (permissive language, no mandate).
• Schools who choose to keep epinephrine auto-injectors on campus will implement policies and procedures for managing a student’s life-threatening allergic reaction to be developed and approved by the local school board.
• Creates a mechanism for schools to receive or purchase epinephrine auto-injectors through the local health department and directs the KY Department for Public Health to develop clinical protocols associated with epinephrine auto-injectors in schools.

Steve Beshear ought to be losing his marbles over this and demanding the legislature do the right thing. Or he should be working on some sort of order. Because it’s a shame there is no leadership anywhere in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. None in the House, none in the Senate, none where the governor spends his days playing Boggle and watching his stories.