Illinois House committee approves plan requiring junior high fentanyl education

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Illinois lawmakers passed a plan last year to require fentanyl education in every high school. Now, representatives hope to pass a bill to require this instruction in junior high.

Sponsors believe students in 6th through 8th grade should learn the differences between synthetic and non-synthetic opioids and illicit drugs as well as the variations of fentanyl.

Rep. Janet Yang Rohr (D-Naperville) said Tuesday that young students should also know the side effects and risk factors of using fentanyl.

"Fentanyl can show up in places that are probably pretty unexpected for people," Yang Rohr said. "This is not necessarily people looking to take hard drugs. It can be as part of performance enhancing drugs that are sourced from bad places on the internet."

Local school boards would be able to decide content that is age appropriate for students to learn about the drug. They would also have the ability to decide how much time teachers would need to spend on the fentanyl education.

"I don't think it would need to be a semester," Yang Rohr explained. "In junior high for example, I know that there's health class. So, I could imagine maybe within half a class, you could cover this material. But I'm not an expert on that."

The legislation passed out of the House Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policy Committee unanimously. House Bill 4219 now heads to the House floor for further consideration.