PIERRE, S.D. – Proposed rules for South Dakota’s public and private K-12 schools to administer medical marijuana to students have received approval.
The state Board of Education Standards on Monday approved the proposed rules on a voice vote.
Wade Pogany is executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota. He says his organization will help school districts with their local policies.
“We are prepared to help schools implement the rules and we call this filling in the gaps. For example, the rules don’t specify exactly what happens when a caregiver and a student come to your school and they have their medical marijuana. What do you do? What forms need to be filled out? What conversations do you have? We can help answer those questions.”
Pogany says the Associated School Boards of South Dakota and the Department of Education can find a balance.
“There really is a balance between what I.M. 26 says and then how you get that into schools. I think the department has done an excellent job of trying to understand the practicality of getting this through while at the same time, these rules, I think you understand, are just a bare bones, what the law says and what you need to do.”
The rules are patterned after Colorado’s school regulations. The state Department of Health is drawing up rules for the rest of the medical marijuana program.
The laws take effect on July 1, but providers probably won’t prescribe medial cannabis until late October.
