What's happening
This bill prohibits school employees from selling or promoting dietary supplements to students and requires educational outreach on their risks.
Why it matters
Limits adult influence on student health decisions. By restricting school employees from selling, promoting, or recommending dietary supplements (except as part of specific, approved duties), the bill aims to reduce pressure or encouragement for students to use potentially risky supplements for things like athletic performance or weight loss.
Establishes clear boundaries and exceptions. The bill makes room for essential uses (like when a nurse administers a supplement prescribed by a doctor, or in the context of relevant classroom teaching), but otherwise prevents employees from acting as unofficial supplement sources or advisors.
Promotes informed choices and risk awareness. It requires the state education department to distribute information to schools on the potential dangers of dietary supplements, especially those marketed for muscle gain or weight loss, ensuring students and parents receive authoritative, science-based guidance rather than hearsay or commercial hype.
Targets specific supplement-related risks for youth. The educational outreach focuses on supplements associated with enhanced athletic performance and similar goals, responding to growing concerns about misuse, side effects, and long-term health impacts among young people.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Ban Staff-Pushed Dietary Supplements
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
3 Multi-sponsors
History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6878
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 25, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. ORTIZ, RIVERA -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. CYMBROWITZ, GALEF, PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to dietary supplements
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 3039 to read as follows:
§ 3039. Sale and endorsement of dietary supplements. No school district employee shall sell, market, provide, distribute, endorse or recommend, except when part of his or her required duties, such as nursing or medical duties requiring the provision of supplements as prescribed by a student's medical provider, classroom teaching duties related to supplements that may include recommendations of certain supplements, and any other required duties approved by the department, the use of dietary supplements, including, but not limited to vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, and amino acids, or concentrates, metabolites, constituents, extracts, or combinations of these ingredients, intended for ingestion in pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid form and not represented for use as a conventional food or as the sole item of a meal or diet and labeled as a dietary supplement, as defined under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, to any student. The department shall develop regulations to inform schools and their employees about the restrictions, and exceptions, on selling, marketing, providing, distributing, endorsing or recommending dietary supplements to students. The department shall develop and distribute to all schools information about the potential risks of using certain dietary supplements for enhanced athletic performance, muscle growth, weight loss and other similar purposes. Such information shall be used by coaches, health and physical education teachers, nurses and other school district employees
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10919-01-9
A. 6878 2
to inform students, and their parents, about the potential risks associated with such dietary supplements.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately the commissioner of education is authorized and directed to promulgate any rule or regulation or to take any other necessary action to ensure the timely implementation of this act on its effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.