CHICAGO, IL - Life-threatening allergic reactions can strike students during school hours, and a 1-year-old state law allows schools to prepare to help.
 
Now, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has printed information for doctors about the Emergency Epinephrine Act. The law aims to increase access in schools to epinephrine (ehp-uh-NEHF'-rehn) injectors, or EpiPens.
 
Madigan says her "Physician's Toolkit" can help doctors fulfill a school's request for EpiPens. The law allows doctors to write prescriptions for EpiPens in the name of a school district.
 
The law lets a school nurse use an EpiPen on a student who goes into anaphylactic shock, whether or not the student's medical records show allergies. And it allows any authorized school personnel to administer an EpiPen to a student who has a prescription for an EpiPen.