On July 10th, Epilepsy Services of New Jersey (ESNJ) and Paul’s Purple Warriors NJ (PPWNJ) met with Senator James Beach of the 6th Legislative District to discuss creating a safe school environment for children with epilepsy. Paul’s Law will require that all school personnel are trained in seizure first aid and that school districts have an individual seizure action plan for each student who has epilepsy. Paul Quinn St. Pierre, a 13 year old who was diagnosed with epilepsy in February, is a passionate advocate for the training of school professionals to promote seizure safe schools. He and PPWNJ have joined forces with ESNJ to make this a reality. If passed, New Jersey will join other states, such as Texas, in implementing key legislation (Sam’s Law) that supports the health and safety of children with epilepsy.
ESNJ understand the importance of training school personnel about seizure first aid, and has been providing seizure recognition and first aid training to school-aged youth, law enforcement, school nurses and school personnel for over 20 years. These programs help to educate and raise awareness about epilepsy and seizure disorders while providing life-saving seizure first aid training. Annually, ESNJ trains approximately 1,000 individuals and in the 2011-2012 school year training 9,000 students throughout the state.
Epilepsy Services of New Jersey thanks Senator Beach for meeting with us on this important issue.
For additional information on Paul’s Law visit our our Paul’s Law page. To get involved in ESNJ’s advocacy efforts, please click the sign up button to subscribe to our e-mail list.