§ 25-21,280.School, educational service unit, early childhood education program, school nurse, medication aide, and nonmedical staff person; physician; health care professional; pharmacist; immunity; when.
Article 21: Special Proceedings and Actions · Last amended 2017 · Last verified July 22, 2026
Full Text of § 25-21,280
Source
Laws 2004, LB 868, § 2; Laws 2005, LB 361, § 30; Laws 2006, LB 1148, § 2; Laws 2017, LB487, § 1.
Plain-English Summary
A student in the middle of an asthma attack or a severe allergic reaction needs help within minutes, often from whoever happens to be nearby, not necessarily a nurse. Section 25-21,280 makes that quick response legally safer for the people who give it. Employees of an accredited school, an educational service unit, or an approved early childhood education program, whether serving as a school nurse, a medication aide, or a nonmedical staff person trained to carry out the institution’s emergency asthma or allergy protocol, are immune from civil liability for their acts or omissions in responding to that emergency. The immunity covers incidents on school grounds, in a school vehicle, at a school-sponsored activity or athletic event, and the equivalent settings for an educational service unit or early childhood program.
That immunity has limits. It does not cover willful or wanton conduct, and it does not cover an employee whose act or omission causing the injury happened while that employee was impaired by alcohol or a controlled substance. It also does not extend to the school district, educational service unit, or early childhood program itself; the immunity protects the individual responder, not the institution employing them.
The section extends similar protection up and down the chain that makes emergency medication available. A physician or other health care professional who issues a non-patient-specific prescription, one written to the school, service unit, or program rather than to a named student, for emergency asthma or allergy medication is immune from liability for issuing it, unless the physician failed to exercise reasonable care in signing the prescription. A pharmacist who dispenses medication under such a prescription gets the same protection, immune unless the pharmacist failed to use reasonable care in dispensing it. Neither the physician nor the pharmacist answers for how someone else later administers the medication.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a school nurse liable if something goes wrong while responding to a student’s asthma attack?
Generally no. Section 25-21,280 grants immunity from civil liability for acts or omissions in that emergency response, unless the conduct was willful or wanton.
Does this immunity cover a teacher trained to use emergency allergy medication, or only nurses?
It covers any nonmedical staff person the school, educational service unit, or program has designated and trained to carry out its emergency asthma or allergic reaction response protocol, in addition to school nurses and medication aides.
Is the school district itself protected from a lawsuit under this section?
No. The immunity in subsection (1) protects the individual employee, not the school district, educational service unit, or early childhood education program.
What breaks the immunity for a staff member who responded to the emergency?
Willful or wanton conduct breaks it, and so does impairment by alcohol or a controlled substance at the time of the act or omission causing the injury.
Can a doctor be sued for writing an emergency asthma prescription to a school instead of to a specific student?
The physician is immune from liability for issuing a non-patient-specific prescription unless the physician failed to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances in signing it.
Is a pharmacist liable if a student has a bad reaction to medication dispensed under a school’s non-patient-specific prescription?
Not if the pharmacist exercised reasonable care in dispensing the medication; the pharmacist is also not liable for how another person later administers it.
What name goes on a non-patient-specific prescription for a school’s emergency medication supply?
The name of the school, educational service unit, or early childhood education program serves as the patient name on the prescription.