COLUMBIA, S.C. — Parents, if you have a child with epilepsy, you can now expect your child’s school to train all employees on responding to seizures
Governor McMaster held a ceremonial bill signing for the Seizure Safe Schools Act on Thursday.
“The bill requires all school personnel be train, whether it's virtually online or in person, but they have to be train in seizure recognition, how to respond and seizure first aid,” Karen St. Marie, founder of South Carolina Advocates for Epilepsy said.
Under the new law, all school districts are required to set up their own seizure training program. The program will teach basic knowledge about epilepsy and its impact on student learning.
The class must be taught by someone qualified and trained in seizure first aid.
“We teach them what to look for, and how to respond to that, and then to provide basic seizure first aid until someone such as the nurse or designated person is able to get there, whether that's EMS, but can get there to offer medical assistance,” Marie said.
One parent who pushed for the new law is Amanda Campbell. Her daughter, Raelyn, was diagnosed and had her first seizure in kindergarten. This is when she found out that South Carolina schools did not have seizure training. She went to her House of Representative and got the ball rolling.
“I’m just glad that it’s over with and that we can finally get some of these students, that we know that they will be safe at school, if something were to happen, and we know that the teachers are train, and they know what to do,” Campbell said. “I’m proud that it happen, and I’m proud that I was actually a part of it.
The school districts have until July 1st of next year to have a plan on how they will implement the program.