Survey shows which schools have Narcan

Nearly 40 percent of Connecticut school districts surveyed last month said none of their schools have naloxone, an emergency medication used to treat opioid overdoses.

In total, 178 of the state’s school districts responded to the survey, with 107 — about 60 percent — stating they have the medication available in at least one of their schools. There were 71 districts — 38.9 percent — that said naloxone was not available in any of their schools.

“Sixty percent is a good number, but certainly 100 percent would be a whole lot better given the prevalence of how much fentanyl is appearing in overdose deaths and just plain overdoses, especially in the last year,” said Jeff McKenna, director of the WoodburyBethlehem Advocates for Substance Abuse Prevention.

The survey was conducted in February by the state Department of Education following the death of a seventh-grade student who overdosed on fentanyl at the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford.

Two other students were also hospitalized after coming in contact with the substance at the school. Police said investigators later found 40 bags of the synthetic opiate at the school, and 100 bags of the substance in the 13-yearold’s bedroom when they searched his home.

The incident brought renewed focus on providing naloxone, better known by the brand name Narcan, in schools. The drug reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and is widely used and available.

At the time, Hartford school officials said the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy did not have naloxone available and none of its staff members were trained to administer it.

However, the district has since made it available in all of its schools and some staff members have been trained to administer it.

Advocates have pushed for the medication and training to be included in schools, as well as other public places where people gather.

“The Hartford incident certainly shows, once again, that this kind of thing is no respecter of age or anything like that,” McKenna said. “(An) ounce of prevention is certainly worth it, I believe.”

The medication is now commonly administered through a nasal spray when a person begins exhibiting signs of an opioid overdose, though it can also be given through an intravenous line or shot. It acts as an opioid antagonist, and can reverse the drop in breathing when a person overdoses on opioids, including fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is often as much as 100 times more potent than heroin.

“It’s my belief that all schools should have access to naloxone,” said Dr. J. Craig Allen, vice president of addiction services for Hartford HealthCare’s behavioral health network. “Not just the school nurse, I think teachers, administrators, coaches, chaperones.” Allen said school resource officers, who are local police officers stationed at schools, should also be trained to administer the medication.

State lawmakers have proposed a bill that would provide grants to local school districts to supply naloxone.

Allen, who testified in favor of the bill, said one teacher told him naloxone is not available in their school, but their resource officer has the medication in his car. Allen described that scenario as “sub-optimal.”

“It’s really unnecessary to keep the naloxone in a protected area as though it is a controlled substance,” Allen said. “It’s not. It’s safer than taking aspirin or acetaminophen, or many over-the-counter cold medications, and it can save someone’s life.”

Data shows the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the opioid crisis in Connecticut, which has experienced an uptick in fatal drug overdoses over the past two years. In 2021, there were 1,504 unintentional drug overdose deaths reported, up from 1,369 in 2020, according to the data.

During the two years of the pandemic, there has been a 30 percent increase in deaths in Connecticut compared with the two previous years, state data shows. Of the deaths reported in 2020 and 2021, most involved fentanyl, the state figures show.

The Hartford student’s overdose death appears to have prompted more districts to provide naloxone and train staff to administer it. In addition to Hartford, New Britain schools also announced administrators would be trained to administer naloxone in response to the death.

Among the 107 Connecticut districts that reported having naloxone, it was more likely to be in a high school or middle school while elementary schools often were not equipped with the drug, the survey showed. More than 90 districts said the medication was available in middle or high schools, while 63 said it was available at the elementary level.

Canaan, Clinton, Colchester, Cornwall, Kent, Naugatuck, Trumbull, Wilton and Woodbridge are among the districts that responded to the survey and indicated none of their schools have naloxone.

In New Haven, naloxone is also not available, but a district spokesperson said local officials are working with the health department to get the medication in schools.

The districts that reported not having the medication in any of their schools commonly cited a “perceived lack of need for naloxone,” according to the survey.

The majority of the districts with the medication said it was stored in the nurse’s office, either locked or accessible to staff. Twenty-nine districts said naloxone was stored with the school’s security or resource officer.

In a similar survey of 352 school nurses three years ago, less than half said they had Narcan available in their schools. Many cited the “perceived lack of need,” while others pointed to concerns or objections from the administration. At least one cited concerns that naloxone is a “dangerous medication to administer” and that “the recipient becomes violent,” the survey showed.

But experts painted a different picture.

“There’s a certain ignorance around that,” McKenna said. “If you come across someone who is full-blown having an overdose, and you dispense Narcan, it inhibits what the opiate is doing to the brain. So when the person does come out of it, they’re in withdrawal.”

“So yeah, they’re not gonna be happy,” he added.

Another advocate pointed to the stigma around opioids as a reason schools had been slow to adopt naloxone.

“If you stand back, in my opinion, the root cause problem is still stigma,” said Anthony Morrissey, a New Milford resident who started a nonprofit advocacy and support organization to address substance abuse following the loss of his son to an overdose in 2019. “Schools really are having a tough time accepting the fact that this is the reality.”

He described a “disconnect” between what the students are doing, and how the schools are preparing.

“When kids don’t know if they have Narcan in schools,” he said, “that’s a scary thing.”