Epi-Pen
California Education Code (EC) Section 49414, as amended by Senate Bill 1266, effective January 1, 2017, requires school districts to provide emergency epinephrine auto-injectors to school nurses or trained personnel who have volunteered, and provides that school nurses or trained personnel who have volunteered may use epinephrine auto-injectors to provide emergency medical aid to persons suffering or reasonably believed to be suffering from an anaphylactic reaction.
Anaphylaxis is a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity to a substance. The reaction can occur within seconds or minutes of encountering an allergic trigger, including but not limited to an insect sting, food allergy, drug reaction (e.g., antibiotics, aspirin and non-steroidal inflammatory drugs), and exercise.
Provide Epinephrine auto-injector pens at every school:
All schools must stock at least one (1) epinephrine auto-injector pen and one (1) epinephrine auto-injector pen junior at each school. A qualified supervisor of health at a school district, county office of education, or charter school shall obtain from an authorizing physician and surgeon a prescription for each school for epinephrine auto-injectors that, at a minimum, includes, for elementary schools, one regular epinephrine auto-injector and one junior epinephrine auto-injector, and for junior high schools, middle schools, and high schools, if there are no pupils who require a junior epinephrine auto-injector, one regular epinephrine auto-injector.
Prescriptions:
A qualified supervisor of health at a school district, county office of education, or charter school shall be responsible for stocking the epinephrine auto-injector and restocking it if it is used.
Orders for free stock can be placed on the EpiPen Website. Regularly review expiration dates and submit any requests for replacement.
Forms:
Storage and Disposal:
Used Epinephrine Auto-Injectors Disposal: Empty Epinephrine Auto-Injectors that have been dispensed in the care of a patient may be disposed of as regular medical waste, that is, placed in a Sharps container or a medical red bag.
Unused EpiPen Disposal: Unused Epinephrine Auto-Injectors that contain only epinephrine salt as the active ingredient may also be disposed of as medical waste.
Annual Notice:
A school district, county office of education, or charter school shall distribute a notice at least once per school year to all staff that contains; a description of the volunteer request stating that the request is for volunteers to be trained to administer an epinephrine auto-injector to a person if the person is suffering, or reasonably believed to be suffering, from anaphylaxis, as specified, and a description of the training that the volunteer will receive pursuant to California Education Code (EC) Section 49414.
Training:
A school district, county office of education, or charter school shall conduct initial training and annual refresher training, pursuant to California Education Code (EC) Section 49414, for all identified volunteers. A free EpiPen training video from Mylan Pharmaceuticals is available on YouTube.