Bill 135 explained in plain English
Ryan's Law (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools), 2014
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Ryan's Law (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools), 2014, mandates Ontario school boards to establish asthma policies, require individual student action plans, permit students to carry their own medication, and provide for staff to administer medication in emergencies, while offering them legal protection for good-faith actions.
Bill 135, also known as Ryan's Law (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools), 2014, requires every school board in Ontario to create and maintain a policy for managing asthma in schools. This policy must include strategies to reduce exposure to asthma triggers, a plan to share information about asthma, regular training for school staff, and a requirement for principals to create individual asthma action plans for students with asthma. It also allows students with a doctor's approval and parental consent to carry their own asthma medication. School staff may be authorized to administer medication in case of an asthma attack, and they are protected from legal action if they act in good faith. The bill ensures that common law duties are still in effect.
- Requires every school board to create and maintain an asthma policy.
- Specifies that the asthma policy must include strategies to reduce exposure to asthma triggers, a communication plan for asthma information, regular training for staff, and individual asthma action plans for students.
- Allows students to carry their own asthma medication with parental consent and physician's approval.
- Requires school principals to maintain files for each student with asthma, including treatment information and emergency contacts.
- Allows school employees to administer asthma medication to a student experiencing an asthma exacerbation, even without prior authorization, if there's a reasonable belief the student is having an attack.
- Protects school employees from legal action for damages if they act in good faith when carrying out their duties under the law.
- States that the law does not affect existing common law duties.
- Specifies that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- School boards in Ontario
- School principals
- School employees
- Students with asthma
- Parents and guardians of students with asthma
- Physicians of students with asthma
- School boards have the obligation to establish and maintain an asthma policy.
- School principals have the obligation to develop individual asthma plans and maintain student files.
- Parents/guardians and students have the obligation to keep asthma information up-to-date.
- Students have the right to carry their own asthma medication with proper consent and approval.
- School employees have the right to administer medication in emergencies and are granted immunity for good-faith actions.
- Common law duties are preserved.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill provides immunity from legal action for damages against employees for acts or omissions done in good faith.
- The bill states that no action or other proceeding for damages shall be commenced against an employee for an act or omission done or omitted in good faith.
- Common law duties are preserved, meaning existing legal obligations not covered by the immunity may still apply.
- The specific details of 'strategies that reduce the risk of exposure to asthma triggers' are not defined in the bill.
- The bill does not specify the exact format or content of the communication plan beyond disseminating information on asthma.
- The frequency or specific content of 'regular training' is not detailed.
- The bill does not outline a penalty for school boards that fail to establish or maintain an asthma policy.
- The bill does not specify what constitutes 'reason to believe' for an employee to administer emergency medication.
This is the primary law created by the bill, establishing requirements for school boards regarding asthma management.
Source: Title and Explanatory Note
Expressions related to education used in Ryan's Law will have the same meaning as defined in the Education Act, unless the context suggests otherwise.
Source: Section 1 (2)
The definition of 'consent' in Ryan's Law refers to consent given by an individual with the capacity to consent to treatment under the Health Care Consent Act, 1996.
Source: Section 1 (1)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
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Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
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