AMHERST COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) – Virginia education leaders and parents are raising privacy concerns over a policy regarding student overdoses.
Executive Order 28 was signed in November 2023 by Governor Glenn Youngkin as part of the efforts to fight the fentanyl epidemic.
The order says school systems must notify all parents in a district within 24 hours if there is a school-related drug overdose. A feedback session was held Thursday night to talk about the guidelines.
“Requiring notifications to all parents about an overdose, even if de-identified, could violate FERPA by inadvertently exposing student identities, particularly in smaller school communities,” said Dr. Aaron Spence, Superintendent of Loudon County Schools. “For example, if students see another student transported by stretcher inside the school, and we name that school in a notification to all parents, the students who saw their peer on the stretcher would then be able to reasonably connect the dots, and reasonably conclude that the unidentified student suffered an overdose. This would be a violation of FERPA by the school division.”
But some parents have seen the effect of drugs within schools firsthand, like Kristina Wright, and finds Executive Order 28 necessary in school administration.
“This is your child. This is your kid. I don’t care what it takes when it comes to a drug that could potentially kill someone, I’d rather know about this,” said Kristina Wright, the parent of a fifth grader.
Wright said she has always believed in strong communication about drugs with school officials, but her views were strengthened on December 12th, 2023.
“Everything stopped,” she recalled. “I was very scared.”
On that day, Wright got a call from her son Hayden’s school. He, along with six other students at Central Elementary in Amherst County, had been exposed to fentanyl authorities said was on a bag of gummy bears a friend shared with him and a few others at lunch.
“The nurse called me immediately as soon as it happened, when he was having symptoms. She was going to go ahead and call the ambulance,” said Wright.
In that scariest of times, Wright said the next call came as a comfort. It was from Superintendent Dr. William Wells. It wasn’t a call he ever expected he would make, but one Wright said she needed in the moment, to know the school was doing something to help her son.
“I felt rest assured, I felt at ease,” she said.
Although none of the students at Central Elementary overdosed, Dr. Wells still made it a priority to communicate with parents.
“The partnership with us and our parents is vital, and just communicating that, knowing if something is going wrong, we have our EMS folks to support us,” said Dr. Wells.
It didn’t just happen in Amherst. That same month, two Liberty High School students in Bedford. overdosed.
And in October 2023 alone, there were nine overdoses connected to Loudon County Schools in Northern Virginia.
“It’s in our communities, and when those things happen in our communities, they do end up in our schools,” said Dr. Wells.
Dr. Wells understands how privacy can be an issue, but said ACPS is determined to follow the order while keeping in check with FERPA requirements.
“We’re Just making sure we’re doing our due diligence to protect the privacy of that student while also making sure community is aware of these these issues,” he said.
The Virginia Department of Education will host two more webinars to discuss Executive Order 28 Monday and Tuesday. Any Virginians who hope to share their thoughts on this policy can learn more and sign up here.
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