House Human Services hears emotional testimony on bill to allow stock epinephrine in child care; refers measure to education committee

Lawmakers in the House Human Services Committee on April 10 took testimony on H 574, a bill that would permit child‑care programs to maintain undesignated stock epinephrine and train staff to administer it in anaphylactic emergencies.

Deputy Commissioner Janet McLaughlin of the Department for Children and Families told the committee her agency supports the goal of making epinephrine available to children who need it but asked for more time to evaluate "medical, practical and regulatory implications," including dosing for children of different ages, staff training requirements, who would legally hold prescriptions and how licensing rules would need to change.

McLaughlin said schools often have nurses on staff who handle medication and prescriptions, but most child‑care programs do not. She raised concerns about who would be responsible for obtaining and storing undesignated epinephrine, how centers would replace expired doses, and the potential cost burden for programs. She suggested the committee consider alternative models used in other states, such as community access programs that place epinephrine at public sites.

Thomas Rivera, co‑founder and vice president of the Elijah Alavi Foundation, urged passage. Rivera said his son, Elijah, died after an allergic exposure at a child‑care setting and that his foundation has helped pass "Elijah's Law" or similar measures in other states. Rivera listed New York, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, California and Arkansas among states that have adopted comparable policies and said New York officials attribute 11 lives saved to those measures. He told the committee many states use the Child Care and Development Block Grant and third‑party vendors to acquire and maintain supply and to provide free training.

Committee members pressed both witnesses on timing, liability and dosing for very small children; Rivera said the available epinephrine products and training modules can address weight‑based dosing and that, when in doubt, immediate administration followed by 911 is the recommended response. McLaughlin said the administration would need several months to produce detailed, implementable guidance.

Rather than voting on H 574, the committee chair said members would not move the bill out of the House Human Services Committee that day and that the item would be transferred to the House Education Committee for potential inclusion in the miscellaneous education bill. The chair asked that the referral packet note that DCF and the Department of Health should be invited to testify in Education.

Next steps: the Human Services Committee will forward its record and recommended materials to the House Education Committee, which may hold additional hearings and draft regulatory language if it chooses to include the measure in the miscellaneous education bill.