YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesSchools could win grants for overdose reversal drugs — and every federally funded school would have to report each time it gives one out.
Your Money
Winning schools could buy drugs that reverse an opioid overdose, such as naloxone, and keep them on site. Schools in cities and counties with high overdose rates would be first in line. Awards would run one year at a time.
A school that takes the money would have to build programs teaching students and the wider community about CPR, drug prevention, and how to respond to an overdose. It would also have to write an emergency plan with the local health department.
Civil Liberties
Every private school and school district taking federal money would have to report each time it gives out an overdose reversal drug. Reports go to a national emergency medical records system and to a mapping program run by a drug trafficking task force. The bill never says whether the report names the student.
More about this bill
Schools could get money to keep overdose reversal drugs on hand. A new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services would pay for them. Private schools, school districts, and charter schools that run as districts could apply. Grants would be awarded by contest. Places with high opioid overdose rates would go first. Each grant would last one year. Winning one would come with two conditions. The school would build an emergency response plan with the local health department. It would also teach students and neighbors about CPR, drug prevention, and what to do during an overdose. Grant money could pay for that teaching too. One rule reaches much further than the grants. Every private school and school district that takes any federal money would have to report each time it gives out an overdose reversal drug. Reports would go to a national emergency medical records system. They would also go to an overdose mapping program run out of the Washington and Baltimore area. That duty would start within 90 days and comes with no money to cover it. The bill does not say what has to be in the report.
Congressional Summary
Helping Educators Respond to Overdoses Act or the HERO ActThis bill establishes a grant program to provide schools with opioid overdose reversal drugs and requires reporting related to the distribution of such drugs.First, the bill requires the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to award competitive grants to eligible entities for (1) purchasing approved opioid overdose reversal drugs; and (2) developing and implementing educational programming or resources to promote student and community knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, drug-use prevention and intervention, and emergency responses to drug overdoses. Eligible entities include private elementary and secondary schools, local educational agencies (LEAs), charter schools that are LEAs, and consortia of LEAs.Second, the bill requires a covered educational institution (i.e., a private school, LEA, or charter school that is an LEA) that receives federal funds to submit a description of any distribution of an opioid overdose reversal drug by such institution to the National Emergency Medical Services Information System and the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program of the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-03-19
- Date Added
- 2026-08-27
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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