Bill Text: NY S07105 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires that the commissioner of education and the commissioner of public health shall develop standardized vaping and e-cigarette school guidelines to assist school districts when they are developing their own policies.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-14 - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO RULES [S07105 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S07105-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7105

                    IN SENATE

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 8, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  MAYER  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Education

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to creating  standardized
          vaping and e-cigarette school guidelines

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The legislature hereby  finds  and  declares  the  reported
     2  incidents  of e-cigarettes use referred to as "vaping" among youth lead-
     3  ing to nicotine addiction, serious illness and  death  to  be  a  public
     4  health  crisis  that  is growing in prevalence in middle grades and high
     5  schools throughout the state. The rates  of  adolescents  and  youth  in
     6  grades  eight  through  twelve using vaping products to consume nicotine
     7  has doubled in recent years with twenty-five percent of twelfth graders,
     8  twenty percent of tenth graders  and  nine  percent  of  eighth  graders
     9  reporting vaping. The New York state department of health has reported a
    10  one hundred sixty percent increase in four years of high school students
    11  using  e-cigarettes.  The  use  of  e-cigarettes  through vaping devices
    12  delivers addictive nicotine  in  more  powerful,  higher  doses  leading
    13  adolescents  to  long-term health consequences, illnesses, related prob-
    14  lems and possibly death. Public school officials  throughout  the  state
    15  are grappling with monitoring and detecting vaping use on school proper-
    16  ty,  posing  an  increasing  demand on school health, guidance and pupil
    17  support personnel and additional administrative responsibilities result-
    18  ing from the surge in youth e-cigarette usage.  There is no debate  that
    19  use  of  e-cigarettes  through vaping devices is harmful to young people
    20  with detrimental lifelong health consequences.  Therefore, the  legisla-
    21  ture  finds that the appropriate state agencies overseeing education and
    22  health shall  work  collaboratively  to  develop  guidelines  to  assist
    23  schools with developing policies and procedures and access any potential
    24  related  funding  to  discourage  and combat the rise in e-cigarette use
    25  among youth.
    26    § 2. Section 305 of the education law  is  amended  by  adding  a  new
    27  subdivision 57 to read as follows:

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14660-01-0
        S. 7105                             2

     1    57.  In  order  to  ensure  standardized well-informed school policies
     2  regarding vaping and e-cigarette use in schools,  the  commissioner,  in
     3  consultation  with  the commissioner of health, shall develop guidelines
     4  for school districts to elect to use when developing policies  on  e-ci-
     5  garette  use through vaping devices. The commissioner shall update these
     6  guidelines as necessary based on health data and educational research on
     7  the implications of e-cigarette use. Such guidelines shall include, at a
     8  minimum:
     9    a. a model school policy expressly prohibiting vaping and  e-cigarette
    10  use  on school grounds that can be included as part of school districts'
    11  codes of conduct or other school policy;
    12    b. specific proposals for age-appropriate  school  district  education
    13  regarding  the  health  risks  associated  with vaping, including health
    14  risks for children;
    15    c.  specific  age-appropriate  programming,  including  social   media
    16  outreach,   for  discouraging  e-cigarette  use  and  vaping  by  school
    17  students, and other related information that may be  incorporated  under
    18  paragraph  (b)  of  subdivision  two of section thirteen hundred ninety-
    19  nine-ii of the public health law or other relevant program; and
    20    d. listing of available funding sources for school districts to combat
    21  e-cigarette use and vaping in schools.
    22    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    23  it shall have become a law.