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Narcan to be distributed to all Austin ISD campuses
Narcan doses will be passed out to Austin ISD school nurses starting Friday.
AUSTIN, Texas - At Thursday’s AISD school board meeting, members approved an addition to the health and wellness policy that will allow for Narcan to be distributed across the district.
Narcan doses will be passed out to school nurses starting Friday.
"We want to be aware of these situations, get ahead of the kids and parents and hopefully not have any more deaths occur," said Health Services Director Alana Bejarano.
Bejarano is referring to what happened within Hays CISD this summer. Four students reportedly died from fentanyl overdoses.
The deaths prompted the school district to launch an educational website and put Narcan in schools.
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Fourth Hays CISD student dies from fentanyl overdose, autopsy reports
According to the Hays CISD superintendent, an autopsy has determined a death of a 15-year-old Hays CISD student in early July was due to a fentanyl overdose.
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"Unfortunately, Hays County has really been affected by those tragic deaths, so we’re just taking a note from them," said Bejarano.
Bejarano said they have not seen any confirmed cases of fentanyl overdoses involving AISD students.
At AISD, each high school will have four doses on hand, middle schools will have two and elementary schools will have one.
School district police officers already carry their own Narcan.
The plan is just one piece of a larger opioid awareness campaign that was launched recently to address a growing problem.
Part of that awareness campaign will include making online resources available and having AISD police officers host presentations.
In September, Lake Travis ISD’s school board also voted to amend local policy to allow the district to have Narcan on hand.