Fairfax Co. school board approves plan to provide students, staff access to Narcan in all classrooms

The Fairfax County, Virginia, school board approved a plan Thursday night to provide staff and students with access to fentanyl testing strips and to place Narcan in all classrooms.

The board is also looking at the possibility of creating a special high school for kids to recover from addiction.

The proposal was co-sponsored by school board members Karl Frisch and Laura Jane Cohen.

“Every student in recovery has the potential to create a future of hope and possibility,” Frisch said during Thursday’s meeting. “Anyone in recovery will tell you that the right support can make all the difference.”

The city of Frederick, Maryland, already has an alternative high school to help teens continue learning while recovering from addiction.

The Fairfax County proposal includes a request to the superintendent to create the new high school. Close to 100 recovery high schools have opened since they first appeared in the late 1980s. Virginia’s first addiction recovery high school opened in 2022 as part of the Chesterfield County Public School system.

According to Fairfax County’s Opioid Data Dashboard, 11 people ages 17 and under suffered fatal overdoses from 2016 to 2022. So far this year, there have been 16 non-fatal overdoses among the same age group.

In 2022, there was a total of 27 non-fatal overdoses of young people.

“Our schools must provide students and families with the knowledge and resources they need to make healthy decisions. Education and intervention are our best weapons for combating substance abuse and the threat of fentanyl,” Frisch said.

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