New York Laws
Article 19 - Medical and Health Service
916 - Pupils With Asthma or Another Respiratory Disease Requiring Rescue Inhaler Treatment.

§ 916. Pupils with asthma or another respiratory disease requiring
rescue inhaler treatment. 1. The board of education or trustees of each
school district and board of cooperative educational services shall
allow pupils who have been diagnosed by a physician or other duly
authorized health care provider with an asthmatic condition or another
respiratory disease to carry and use a prescribed inhaler and
self-administer inhaled rescue medications to alleviate respiratory
symptoms or to prevent the onset of exercise induced asthmatic symptoms
during the school day on school property and at any school function as
such terms are defined, respectively, by subdivisions one and two of
section eleven of this chapter, with the written permission of a
physician or other duly authorized health care provider, and written
parental consent. The written permission shall include an attestation by
the physician or the health care provider confirming the following: (a)
the pupil is diagnosed with asthma or another respiratory disease for
which inhaled rescue medications are prescribed to alleviate respiratory
symptoms or to prevent the onset of exercise induced asthmatic symptoms;
and (b) that the pupil has demonstrated that he or she can
self-administer the prescribed inhaled rescue medication effectively.
The written permission shall also include the name of the prescribed
inhaled rescue medication, the dose, the times when the medication is to
be taken, the circumstances which may warrant the use of the medication
and the length of time for which the inhaler is prescribed. A record of
such consent and permission shall be maintained in the student's
cumulative health record. In addition, upon the written request of a
parent or person in parental relation, the board of education or
trustees of a school district and board of cooperative educational
services shall allow such pupils to maintain an extra such inhaler in
the care and custody of a licensed nurse, nurse practitioner, physician
assistant, or physician employed by such district or board of
cooperative educational services, and shall be readily accessible to
such pupil. Nothing in this section shall require a school district or
board of cooperative educational services to retain a licensed nurse,
nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or physician solely for the
purpose of taking custody of a spare inhaler for the treatment of asthma
or a respiratory disease requiring rescue medication treatment, or
require that a licensed nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant,
or physician be available at all times in a school building for the
purpose of taking custody of the inhaler. In addition, the medication
provided by the pupil's parents or persons in parental relation shall be
made available to the pupil as needed in accordance with the school
district's or board of cooperative educational services' policy and the
orders prescribed in the written permission of the physician or other
authorized health care provider.

2. A school district, board of cooperative educational services and/or
their agents or employees shall incur no legal or financial liability as
a result of any harm or injury sustained by a pupil or other person
caused by reasonable and good faith compliance with this section.