Nevada Youth Legislature selects school drug-response bill to pursue during 2025 session

The Nevada Youth Legislature selected a bill to require the Nevada Department of Education to create and prescribe a uniform procedure for schools to follow when teachers or administrators witness behavior consistent with student drug or tobacco use, youth legislators and board members said at the NYL board meeting.

The measure, authored by youth legislator Kathleen McCarthy, was chosen after the NYL narrowed 21 initial proposals to seven, then to two, heard expert witnesses and held full legislative-style hearings before voting to send McCarthy's bill forward for the 2025 legislative session. Sebastian Rios, chair of the Nevada Youth Legislature, told the NYL board that youth legislators “started with the 21 measures then narrowed our choices down to 7” and then further refined the list through presentations and questions from peers.

McCarthy said the bill is intended to create a clearer, non-discipline-centered framework for schools to respond when a student appears to be using or to have used illicit drugs. She cited a 2019 SAMHSA report showing that 4.7 percent of Nevada adolescents ages 12–17 met criteria for illicit drug use disorder in 2019 — “that 4.7 equated to about 10,000 adolescents 6 years ago” — and said local law-enforcement reports suggest the problem has grown since then.

The draft concepts McCarthy described include: parent or guardian notification after a report or an incident; providing parents or guardians with resources such as information about therapy, rehabilitation and crisis lines; follow-up to ensure students are receiving assistance; and keeping written records of reports so the state can build statistical maps of suspected incidents. McCarthy said the bill is meant to “add to existing law by creating a policy that is more specific than the current general requirements for suspected drug use,” while not centering the policy on school discipline.

Board members asked several procedural and substantive questions during and after McCarthy's presentation. The NYL board and youth legislators discussed the bill's scope, concerns about teacher workload and the need to ensure any reporting does not tie sensitive information to individual students. Chair Weiner noted that seven amendments had been proposed by the full youth legislature and that three of those seven were accepted into the bill.

The board and youth legislators emphasized that the bill’s final text remains subject to legal review. Sebastian Rios said the youth legislators will finalize language on Jan. 14 and that the bill’s passage in the Nevada Legislature will depend on committee assignments and that the NYL’s role will include presenting testimony and advocating for the measure during NYL Day in Carson City. The transcript does not include a roll-call vote tally from the NYL membership for the final selection; the board recorded the decision but did not provide a numerical vote count at the meeting.

What happens next: youth legislators plan to present the measure to the Senate Education Committee during NYL Day and to lobby individual lawmakers; the NYL will submit written testimony if youth legislators choose and will return in April or May to testify and support the bill as its progress through the legislative process allows.