Opioid Crisis: What Student Drug-Screening Provision Means for Parents

By ALISON BAUTER (Patch Staff)

BEDFORD, MA - A wide-ranging new law to curb prescription drug abuse in Massachusetts sailed through the Senate without a single dissenting vote. Yet Middlesex and Worcester Sen. Jennifer Flanagan still stood to offer a passionate defense of one provision.

"We know what used to be experimentation with kids now can end in destruction and addiction, and even death," the Democratic senator told her fellow legislators.

She was referring to Chapter 71, Section 97 of the sweeping legislative package, which mandates city, town and regional school districts, charter schools and vocational school districts institute an annual verbal screening tool to catch student substance abuse before it becomes addiction.

Flanagan heard no argument from her fellow senators that day, but her office has gotten calls from concerned constituents. The mandate for drug-screening in schools has raised some parents' eyebrows.

"We know there's mixed emotions about it," said Annie Reiser, Flanagan's constituent services and communications director.

She attributes that largely to misinformation. Put "schools" and "drug-screening" together in a sentence, and it's bound to conjure thoughts of urine testing or otherwise policing students' behaviors. But, as Flanagan's staff has assured concerned parents, the actual process is not invasive.

"What it really is is a short conversation," said Reiser, whose office helped draft the bill signed by Gov. Charlie Baker Monday.

She casts it as a routine health screening, similar to a check for scoliosis. School nurses or other certified screeners begin the conversation by asking permission from students to discuss substance use. Permission received, they will follow with a series of questions meant to gently probe students' habits.

What nurses won't do is run to parents the second a student mentions trying fentanyl or oxycodone at a party. Mom or Dad get called in only when nurses determine students have a severe problem, or the student requests their involvement.

In the meantime, that early conversation is meant to flag students for further check-ins as needed. It also starts a discussion centered around "reality therapy," a route through which those nurses can educate students about the possible ramifications of even casually taking opiate-based bills -- addiction, progression to heroin, even death.

In rare cases, early intervention will result in a referral to treatment, Reiser said.

Ahead of the legislation's passage, seven Massachusetts schools initially ran a pilot program of the screenings. That number is now up to 10, and Reiser said in an email that around 100 schools are looking to implement it as soon as possible. The law does not mandate verbal screenings until the 2017-18 school year.

The Department of Public Health is charged with shaping final details in the program. Right now, some lines remain blank. For example, DPH has yet to determine which two grades will be tested, something it must do in conjunction with the department of elementary and secondary education, according to the law.

Reiser said early conversations suggested seventh and tenth grade. DPH will determine that starting point by looking at statistics and determining what age students are likely to be exposed to opioids, she said.

The law also offers parents and guardians the chance to opt out of the screening. On the Senate floor, Flanagan pleaded against exercising that option. The school screenings, she said, are a crucial early, preventative tool.

"When risky behaviors begin in our teens, we're able to cut it off where it starts," she said.

In addition to student screenings, the newly enacted law requires prescribers to check the prescription monitoring program each time they prescribe a narcotic, establishes a one-week limit for first-time opioid prescriptions and lets patients limit how many pills they receive. It also includes provisions related to education on the risks associated with the highly addictive opiate-based painkillers.

>> Photo via Senator Jen Flanagan Facebook page. The senator chairs the Special Senate Committee on Opioid Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Options. She is pictured here standing behind the governor's left shoulder as he signs the substance abuse bill she helped craft into law.