By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since
1995
In 2020, students were granted the right to have medical marijuana
administered to them in school by their parent or guardian IF formally authorized by their school
district. The circumstances surrounding this potential opportunity
can be confusing and if the law is not followed properly, could lead to
discipline.
Per
Education Code §49414.1 (aka JoJo’s Law), it is up to each school board
if they will implement a policy to allow a parent to administer medical marijuana/cannabis at their
schools. If there is no policy in place allowing this, there is no right to administer medical marijuana at school.
If there is a board policy, per §49414.1:
(c) The policy shall include, at a minimum, all of the following
elements:
(1) The parent or guardian shall not administer the medicinal
cannabis in a manner that disrupts the educational environment or exposes
other pupils.
(2) After the parent or guardian administers the medicinal cannabis,
the parent or guardian shall remove any remaining medicinal cannabis from
the schoolsite.
(3) The parent or guardian shall sign in at the schoolsite before
administering the medicinal cannabis.
(4) Before administering the medicinal cannabis, the parent or
guardian shall provide to an employee of the school a valid written
medical recommendation for medicinal cannabis for the pupil to be kept on
file at the school.
If your child receives medical marijuana and you would like to administer
it to them during their school day, check your district’s board of
education page to see if there may be a board policy in place. If
there is, it is critical that it is read and understood as far as what
exactly IS allowed.
If a parent does not follow the rules of their district exactly, the student could be disciplined. For example, if a parent just can’t get to school that day, and rather than forego giving the medication, they hand the medical marijuana to the student to stick in their backpack. This is not allowed and discipline could result.
There remain
laws
on school discipline allowing suspension or expulsion for possession or being under the influence of marijuana, and this legal conflict has not been addressed. As such, parents may want to formally confirm that if their child is “under the influence” due to allowed medical marijuana, they will not be
punished as this “influence” is medically authorized and allowed by board policy.
Parents may also want to explore a 504 Plan or Individualized Education Program (IEP) to see if the medication use or administration options (and other supports) may be addressed in one of these plans.
There is still a
lot of confusion surrounding medical marijuana at school, and students get punished for matters
relating to cannabis very frequently. Be sure your child won’t.
Best,
Michelle Ball
Education Law Attorney
LAW OFFICE OF MICHELLE BALL
717 K Street, Suite 228
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-444-9064
Email:help@edlaw4students.com
Fax: 916-444-1209
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Please see my disclaimer on the bottom of my blog page. This is legal information, not legal
advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by this posting, etc.
etc.! This blog may not be reproduced without permission from
the author and proper attribution of authorship. This blog may not reflect
the current state of the law.
