Sponsors (10)
Official title: To establish education partnership programs between public schools and public health agencies to prevent the misuse and overdose of synthetic opioids by youth, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress May 1, 2025
The bill expands school-centered prevention, treatment, naloxone access, data collection, and federal coordination to reduce youth synthetic-opioid harm, but does so at the cost of added taxpayer expense, implementation and reporting burdens, and heightened privacy and equity risks that may limit reach for some communities.
Students and school staff will gain expanded prevention, treatment, recovery supports (including naloxone access and school-based counseling), reducing the risk of synthetic-opioid overdoses in K–12 settings.
Teachers, classified school employees, and other school staff will receive statutory recognition, clearer eligibility for programs, and increased professional development to better recognize and respond to opioid risks.
State and local policymakers, school leaders, and public-health partners will have improved federal coordination, clearer definitions, and standardized national data to design and target prevention, treatment, and safety programs.
Taxpayers, school districts, and local education agencies will face increased costs for training, naloxone procurement, program rollouts, data collection, and implementation if appropriations are insufficient.
Small, rural, tribal, and resource-poor schools and districts may experience new administrative, application, and reporting burdens that complicate participation and divert staff time from instruction.
Students and families face privacy and civil‑liberties risks from expanded incident reporting, survey questions, and data collection unless strong de‑identification and consent safeguards are enforced.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Creates HHS grant program, Task Force, school training/plan requirements, expanded data collection, and survey changes to prevent and respond to youth synthetic opioid misuse.
Creates a federal program to help K–12 schools prevent and respond to synthetic opioid (including fentanyl) misuse and overdoses among youth. It funds a three‑year competitive pilot grant program for school–health partnerships, requires new training and planning duties for State and local education agencies, directs improved data collection and national youth survey questions, and sets up an HHS‑led interagency Task Force to coordinate best practices. The bill expands school‑based health center authority to obtain naloxone, requires NCES to collect data on synthetic opioid access in schools, and mandates education and prevention training and stakeholder engagement plans for LEAs and SEAs. It aims to improve prevention, treatment, recovery supports, professional development for school staff, and federal coordination and data on the youth synthetic opioid problem.