Kirkland students' bill to put Narcan in schools passes the Senate, heads to House

A bill to put opioid reversal medication in every Washington public school passed out of the state Senate and is now headed to the House.

Senate Bill 5804 would require all K-12 public schools, charter schools, and state-tribal education compact schools to keep the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone on hand.

Naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, is a nasal spray that reverses the effects of deadly opioids. It's most often used to counteract the effects of fentanyl, a drug that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and that has driven the opioid crisis across the country, including in schools.

The bill, which was first reported on by Crosscut, won unanimous approval in the Senate Thursday.

That's good news for students whose communities have been affected by the opioid epidemic, but it's especially welcome news for the students who actually proposed the bill to lawmakers.

"It's been something that we, as students, have to be hyper-aware about and vigilant about," said Sophia Lymberis, one of the Lake Washington High School seniors who came up with the idea for an AP Government class.

"We also wanted to create legislation that would impact people our age, because oftentimes our voices aren't the ones being heard and represented within the Washington state legislature."

Lymberis and her groupmates discovered gaps in existing state legislation, which currently requires only high schools in districts with 2,000 or more students to carry Narcan.

"This entirely excluded so many school districts, especially in rural areas in Washington," Lymberis told KUOW. "We felt that it was unfair that only students in more higher-populated areas were being protected by something as important as Narcan. So, we decided to create legislation about this that we then presented to Sen. Kuderer."

State Sen. Patty Kuderer (D-Bellevue) sponsored the bill that is now making its way through the halls of Olympia.

"I'm the eternal optimist, so I'm going to tell you that the chances [of the bill passing the House] are pretty good," Kuderer said. "It's common sense, and it's not a heavy lift for schools to have to implement."

The bill does not include funding to pay for the Narcan. However, according to Kuderer's office, schools can obtain a two-dose kit for about $50. Schools may also qualify for Narcan purchased directly from the manufacturer at the "public interest price" of $41 for a two-dose kit.

The state Department of Health also offers free opioid reversal medication to all public high schools, alternative high schools, and specialized programs serving high school students.

If all else fails, the bill would make an exception for schools that make a "good faith effort" to obtain the medication through donations but fail to do so.

After winning unanimous support for their bill in the Senate, Lymberis and her groupmates are ready to go through the process of defending their idea in the House. Lymberis said she'll be testifying before the next committee to hear her bill.

"In the beginning, we sat down and we said we're bringing this bill to the governor's desk," she said. "So, it's really exciting to see that that's where it looks like it's heading."

Lymberis and her groupmates are part of a broader national movement to get opioid reversal medications into schools.

In fact, an NPR analysis found that, during the 2022-2023 school year, only 5 of the 20 largest school districts in the country stocked naloxone in all of their schools. By the next school year, 11 of 20 did.

"Knowing that a lot of my peers' lives were cut short because of something that could have been preventable through legislation such as this was really disheartening," Lymberis said. "It made us just want to work harder to make sure that we were doing our peers justice."