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Committee hears HB600 to allow schools to stock albuterol for asthma emergencies
Summary
Representative Melody Cunningham27s bipartisan bill would let schools carry stock albuterol inhalers and require training and protocols; public health, medical and education groups testified in support, citing potential to reduce emergency visits and absenteeism.
The Senate Education Committee heard testimony on House Bill 600, which would permit (but not require) Montana schools to keep stock inhaled albuterol for emergency use in asthma or respiratory distress.
Representative Melody Cunningham told the committee the bill is a permissive, stakeholder-driven measure. "This bill would add stock albuterol for emergency situations of asthma or respiratory distress," she said, adding it joins statutes that already allow stock epinephrine and Narcan.
DPHHS program manager William Biskupiak and several medical witnesses described the scale of asthma in Montana and the benefits of immediate access to albuterol. Biskupiak said school-aged asthma affects roughly 7 percent of children in Montana and that stock albuterol can "prevent and treat severe asthma attacks, reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and potentially even fatalities." Pediatric pulmonologists and the American Lung Association offered similar testimony and urged a due pass.
The bill includes training requirements and allows schools to designate authorized personnel to administer stock medication. Sponsors said annual training will be developed by DPHHS and that the stock medication does not replace parents27 responsibility to supply a prescribed inhaler when available.
Several tribal and rural advocates said stock medications would help students without regular access to refills or whose inhalers are forgotten at home. There were no recorded opponents in the transcript.
Outcome: HB600 was heard with broad proponent testimony and sponsor asked the committee for passage; no committee disposition appears in the transcript.
