School and health partners could receive youth opioid prevention grants

The Health and Human Services Secretary would award competitive grants to eligible school and health partnerships. Each partnership must include an eligible education entity, such as a school or education agency, and an eligible health agency or qualified organization. The Secretary could award grants to no more than 25 partnerships. Congress would need to provide funding for the program to operate; the bill authorizes sums as needed for fiscal years 2026 through 2028. Each grant would last three years. The bill authorizes funding for fiscal years 2026 through 2028.

The bill describes training on synthetic opioid misuse as an activity eligible for support under an existing federal professional-development provision. Local and state education agencies would also address prevention in their plans. The training provision covers all school personnel. The planning provisions apply to local and state education agencies under federal education law. No start date is specified.

The Health and Human Services Secretary would establish a federal task force to coordinate responses to youth synthetic opioid misuse and overdose. The task force would focus on synthetic opioid misuse and overdose among young people. The task force would include federal officials, parents whose children died from a fentanyl or other synthetic opioid overdose, and nonprofit representatives. It would review programs, identify effective practices, and develop a national strategy. The Secretary would establish the task force within 90 days after the Act is enacted.

Federal agencies would add opioid questions to youth surveys, include school access and effects in education data, evaluate overdose reporting, and allow school health center grants to cover naloxone and prevention programs. The provisions cover school safety data, two national youth surveys, state overdose reporting, and school-based health center grants. The surveys would ask about counterfeit or synthetic opioids, including whether respondents know what kind they used or encountered. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would evaluate how well state reporting captures specific synthetic opioids linked to overdose and death among secondary school-aged children. School health center grants could cover naloxone purchases and other synthetic opioid prevention programs. The surveys would add indicators beginning January 1, 2026. The overdose reporting evaluation would begin on or after that date.