Thousands of doses of Narcan are set to be delivered to schools around Arizona through a new state task force, the Arizona Department of Education has announced.
More than 16,000 anti-overdose kits will be going to schools. They will be given at no cost to the schools by the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will provide training.
ABC15’s Amelia Fabiano reported earlier this year on the task force, named STOP-IT (School Training Overdose Preparedness and Intelligence Taskforce), which aims to prevent and respond to opioid overdoses among school-age children, especially those caused by fentanyl.
It had been working to prepare a comprehensive “toolkit” and ways to equip schools with the opioid reversal drug, with the goal of possible implementation in schools by early 2025.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and other state leaders will be discussing the deliveries on Wednesday at a press conference in Phoenix.
