The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky finds that:

1. (1) Asthma is the seventh-most prevalent chronic health condition in the United States and is the leading serious chronic illness of children;
2. (2) Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under age fifteen (15) and accounts for almost one (1) in six (6) of all pediatric emergency room visits;
3. (3) Approximately two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) Kentuckians suffer from asthma, including over sixty thousand (60,000) children;
4. (4) Nationally more than five thousand four hundred (5,400) individuals die from asthma each year;
5. (5) Asthma is the number-one cause of school absences attributed to chronic conditions;
6. (6) Asthma is manageable with treatment and medications;
7. (7) Physicians and other health care practitioners instruct children with asthma in the proper use of asthma medications; and
8. (8) KRS 158.830 to 158.836 shall be construed to provide unobstructed access to asthma medications for elementary and secondary school students with asthma.

Effective: July 15, 2002

History: Created 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 50, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2002.