State legislators hoping to change restrictions on it Parents, pack a note for teacher with your kids’ sunscreen

State Rep. Craig Hall of Utah has four redheaded children, lives in the state with the highest rate of melanoma in the country, and buys sunscreen "in the Costco size." He is an unabashed proponent of sun protection.

But when Hall, a Republican, introduced legislation this year to allow kids to bring sunscreen to school — which starts Aug. 21 in his district — he said his fellow lawmakers were less enthusiastic. "My colleagues' first reaction to this bill was mostly 'Seriously? We need a bill for this?' "

Like ibuprofen and hay fever medication, sunscreen is considered an over-thecounter drug by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore by almost all schools. That means kids can't bring it to school without a doctor's note; even then, they must see the school nurse, who has to supervise its use.

The result: Teachers leading a sunny field trip are free to cover themselves in a thick protective layer of sunscreen. But in most states, children can't follow suit. In Indianapolis, for instance, kids went back to school July 31 — the height of summer — but they must have a doctor's note to bring sunscreen to school, and visit the school nurse to put it on.

That is beginning to change. In the past four months, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Washington have enacted laws declaring that students may use sunscreen in school and at after-school activities, no doctor's note required. Those states join California, New York, Oregon and Texas, which already have lifted the ban on sunscreen in school. The laws in Arizona, New York and Washington also stipulate that kids may bring and use sunscreen at summer camps.

The legislation is designed to allow school districts to implement policies that encourage kids to use sunscreen and to wear hats and long sleeves in the sun — although, in a nod to school dress codes, the legislation allows schools to ban clothes and hats deemed inappropriate.

Sunscreen legislation is also in the works in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. A sunscreen bill that cleared the Senate in Mississippi died in a House committee, and a bill introduced in Georgia has stalled.

District of Columbia pub- lic schools do not allow sunscreen without an authorization form signed by a doctor, according to spokeswoman Janae Hilson.

In Maryland, each school district sets its own policy. For instance, sunscreen is allowed in Harford County schools without a doctor's note, but only on "field days'' and only if parents send in labeled nonspray sunscreen and teach the child how to use it beforehand. Virginia also leaves the policy to the discretion of school districts.

"Parents, I think, are the best decision-makers" about their children's sunscreen use, said state Sen. Terry Burton, a Republican cosponsor of the Mississippi bill. It would have required the state education department to write a sun-safety policy for districts to follow. "The school should not interfere with that decision that a parent makes to protect their child."

Legislators say they are motivated by angry parents whose children suffered serious sunburns at school events where sunscreen was banned. "If you just Google 'kid sunburned at school,' " Hall said, "some of the stories are horrifying."

In Rhode Island, state Rep. David Bennett, a Democrat, said the state's 2016 law requiring daily school recess makes it more important that kids be allowed to put on sunscreen by themselves. "The kids are impatient. They've got 20 minutes. They're not going to stand in line for 20 minutes'' while a teacher applies sunscreen, said Bennett, whose bill passed the lower house and is now in the Senate. "By the time she gets done with the last kid, the 20 minutes is going to be over."

But Bennett ran into opposition from the Rhode Island Certified School Nurse Teachers Association, which opposes the bill. Unlike other state sunscreen laws, Rhode Island's legislation has no language to address liability for school districts and for school employees who may apply sunscreen. The school nurses group also argues that sunscreen should be kept out of classrooms because of potential allergies among students.

Diane Kowal, president of the Rhode Island association, said two children in her Coventry school district carry EpiPens because of sunscreen allergies.