On Oct. 27, the Austin ISD board of trustees approved updates to the Wellness and Health Services Medical Treatment plan to allow campus nurses to administer emergency overdose reversal drugs if needed.

The vote follows an Oct. 21 announcement that the district is giving school nurses Narcan as part of a fentanyl prevention and emergency response.

“These steps, part of Fake & Fatal awareness campaign, [are] in response to fentanyl overdose in neighboring school districts and rising national numbers of fentanyl related fatalities,” said board president Geronimo Rodriguez during the meeting.

Rodriguez said the policy change was fast tracked due to the urgency of the situation because nurses would not have been able to administer Narcan under state law otherwise.