(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s won approval in the Iowa legislature calls on Iowa schools to train all staff in how to recognize and respond to seizures and have at least one person on staff who can administer anti-seizure medication. Senator Dawn Driscoll of Williamsburg says her nephew Wyatt was diagnosed with epilepsy before he turned one.

“These are the words from my sister-in-law, Wyatt’s mother: ‘A student like Wyatt makes schools extremely nervous…We are lucky to have dedicated staff at Wyatt’s school…willing to take the training, but not every kid is as lucky as he is. It is this training that has kept Wyatt safe daily.”

Under the bill, the parents of children diagnosed with a seizure disorder, like epilepsy, would be able to develop “seizure action plans” with their child’s teachers and others in the school. Senator Tony Bisignano of Des Moines says his daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 14. “There is nothing worse than a child with seizure and if we can’t expect the school to keep our kids safe by being trained, then I don’t know where else we’d go,” Bisignano said. “I’d like to thank you for voting for this.”

Representative Ray “Bubba” Sorenson of Greenfield has been working on this issue for seven years. “My passion for the original bill came from my experience with my daughter, Indie, who had an hour-long seizure when she was two and learning about the more than 40 types of seizures that affect us,” Sorensen said. He says this latest version addresses some of the concerns raised by educators. It provides liability protection to school staff who respond when a child is having a seizure.

An estimated four-thousand children in Iowa have been diagnosed with a seizure disorder, but bill backers note seizures can be caused by routine things like dehydration, stress and even lack of sleep. According to federal data, one in 25 people will have an unprovoked seizure in their lifetime.