Bill 20 explained in plain English
Ryan's Law (Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools), 2015
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 1st 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 mandates Ontario school boards to implement asthma-friendly school policies, including individual student plans and protocols for medication administration.
Ryan's Law requires Ontario school boards to create and maintain policies to support students with asthma. These policies must include strategies to reduce exposure to asthma triggers, plans for communicating information about asthma, training for school staff, and requirements for principals to develop individual asthma action plans for each student with asthma. The law also specifies that students aged 16 and over can carry their own asthma medication without parental consent, and allows school staff to administer medication in emergencies. It provides immunity to school employees for good faith actions or omissions related to their duties under the law.
- Requires every school board in Ontario to establish and maintain an asthma policy.
- Mandates that the asthma policy includes strategies to reduce exposure to asthma triggers.
- Requires a communication plan for sharing asthma information with parents, students, and employees.
- Requires regular training for school staff on recognizing asthma symptoms and managing exacerbations.
- Requires school principals to develop an individual asthma plan for each student with asthma.
- Requires school principals to maintain a file for each student with asthma containing current treatment and emergency information.
- Allows students to carry their own asthma medication if they have parental or guardian permission.
- Allows students aged 16 and older to carry their own asthma medication without parental or guardian permission.
- Permits school employees to be pre-authorized to administer asthma medication or supervise students taking medication.
- Allows school employees to administer asthma medication in an emergency if they believe a student is experiencing an asthma exacerbation, even without prior authorization.
- Provides immunity from lawsuits for damages to school employees acting in good faith when carrying out duties or powers under the Act.
- States that common law duties are not affected by this section.
- School boards in Ontario
- Students with asthma in Ontario schools
- Parents and guardians of students with asthma
- School principals
- School employees (teachers, administrators, and other staff who work regularly with students)
- Health care providers involved in the care of students with asthma
- School boards must establish and maintain an asthma policy.
- School principals must develop individual asthma plans for students.
- Students aged 16 and over have the right to carry their own asthma medication.
- School employees may administer asthma medication in emergencies.
- Parents/guardians and students have an obligation to keep information in the student's file up-to-date.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent (May 5, 2015).
- No specific penalties for non-compliance are detailed in the provided text, but the Act establishes requirements for school boards and staff.
- The specific details of the training content for school employees are not provided.
- The definition of 'regularly works at the school' for an employee is not further specified.
- The exact scope of 'direct contact with pupils on a regular basis' for training purposes is not detailed.
- While common law duties are preserved, the specific common law duties are not outlined in this bill.
- The text does not specify penalties for a school board failing to establish or maintain an asthma policy.
This law establishes requirements for school boards regarding asthma policies and student care.
Source: Section 6
Expressions related to education used in Ryan's Law have the same meaning as defined in the Education Act, unless otherwise specified.
Source: Section 1(3)
The definition of 'consent' in Ryan's Law refers to consent given by an individual capable of consenting to treatment under this Act.
Source: Section 1(1)
The definition of 'health care provider' in Ryan's Law refers to members of Colleges under this Act who are acting within their scope of practice.
Source: Section 1(2)
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.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
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.
How this data is sourced