According to news reports, the senator is quoted as saying, “New York, more than 40,000 children were hospitalized overnight for asthma between 2005 to 2007. More than 370,000 children in the state, 14 percent of low-income children and 8 percent of all children, suffer from asthma.

Asthma costs the country more than $16 billion a year in medication, missed work and school days, and hospital visits, according to Gillibrand’s office. Gillibrands son has asthma according to news sources.

The Asthma education and support proposal is to spend the $100 million in schools nationwide to make sure all children who need inhalers have access to them. The money would also allow schools to purchase placers — removable, disposable mouthpieces that attach to inhalers — so all children with asthma can have their own.
The proposed legislation would require that schools keep files on all children with asthma and what their prescriptions are. It would promote coordination between schools, parents, and primary care providers, and require school staff to be educated about asthma.