Committee advances changes to school health duties and epinephrine rules after adding step to chain of command

The committee voted unanimously to advance LD2046 as amended, a bill that updates certain duties regarding suspected communicable and infectious diseases in schools and clarifies requirements around the administration of epinephrine.

Maura, the bill analyst, said the bill broadens current language by replacing references to a specific teacher with "a member of school personnel" and by allowing superintendents to act through a designee. Section 2 updates terminology for epinephrine devices (replacing "autoinjector" with "automated device") and raises a drafting question about whether collaborative practice agreements should be broadened to include trained designees and visitors.

Multiple school nurses’ concerns were raised in submitted testimony, including worries that the bill could weaken clinical judgment by turning medical responses into checklist-based actions and that shifting reporting language could create FERPA or HIPAA questions. Representative Bagshaw read concerns from the Maine Association of School Nurses opposing the bill as originally drafted.

Members adopted an amendment, moved by Representative Kelly Murphy, that inserts an extra step in the notification chain so that a building administrator or designee consults with designated medical personnel (such as a school nurse or trained designee where no nurse is onsite) to validate a concern before elevating it to the superintendent or the superintendent’s designee. The amendment also clarifies that designees must be identified in collaborative agreements and receive appropriate training. The motion to advance the bill as amended carried on a recorded vote of 11–0.

Dr. Laura Cyr of the Department of Education reiterated that the department’s child-nutrition and school-health teams have expertise in these areas, that the DOE would need additional staff to stand up related programmatic capacity, and that reporting requirements to DHHS and Maine CDC under Title 22 are unchanged by this bill.