The Ankeny Community School District seeks to provide a safe environment for students, staff, and visitors who are at risk of severe allergic reactions. Therefore, it is the district’s policy to annually obtain in the name of the school district a prescription for epinephrine auto-injectors from a licensed healthcare professional for a school nurse and/or trained and authorized personnel to administer to a student or individual who may be experiencing an anaphylactic reaction.

Procurement and maintenance of supply:
The district shall stock a minimum of one pediatric dose and one adult dose epinephrine auto-injector for each K-12 school building. The supply of such auto-injectors shall be maintained in a secure, dark, temperature controlled location in each school building.

A building nurse shall routinely check stock epinephrine auto-injectors and document in a log monthly:

• The expiration date;
• Any visualized particles; or
• Color change.

The building nurse shall be responsible for ensuring the district replaces, as soon as reasonably possible, any logged epinephrine auto-injector that is used, close to expiration, discolored, and/or has particles
visible in the liquid.

Training:
A school nurse or personnel trained and authorized may provide or administer an epinephrine autoinjector from a school supply to a student or individual if the authorized personnel or school nurse
reasonably and in good faith believes the student or individual is having an anaphylactic reaction. Training to obtain a signed certificate to become personnel authorized to administer an epinephrine autoinjector shall consist of the requirements established by law.

Authorized personnel will be required to provide a procedural skills demonstration to the school nurse demonstrating competency in the administration of stock epinephrine auto-injectors to retain
authorization to administer stock epinephrine auto-injectors if the following occur:

• Failure to administer an epinephrine auto-injector to a student or individual by proper route, failure to administer the correct dosage, or failure to administer an epinephrine auto-injector according to generally accepted standards of practice (“medication error”); or
• Accidental injection of an epinephrine auto-injector into a digit of the authorized personnel administering the medication (“medication incident”).

Reporting:
The district will contact emergency medical services (911) immediately after a stock epinephrine autoinjector is administered to a student or individual. The school nurse or authorized personnel will remain
with the student or individual until emergency medical services arrive.

Within 48 hours, the district will report to the Iowa Department of Education:

• Each medication incident with the administration of stock epinephrine;
• Each medication error with the administration of stock epinephrine; or
• The administration of a stock epinephrine auto-injector.

As provided by law, the district, board, authorized personnel or school nurse, and the prescriber shall not be liable for any injury arising from the provision, administration, failure to administer, or assistance in the administration of an epinephrine auto-injector provided they acted reasonably and in good faith.

The superintendent/designee may develop an administrative process to implement this policy.

Legal Reference:
Iowa Code §§ 135.185; 279.8.
281 I.A.C. 14.3.

Cross Reference:
504.32 Administration of Medication to Students

Adopted:
March 19, 2018

Reviewed:
March 23, 2020
June 16, 2022

Revised:
March 23, 2020
July 25, 2022