NYC Council members pushing for OD meds at daycare centers

Two City Council members are proposing the city provide overdose reversal medication to child care centers in response to the tragic death of an infant boy in September, the Daily News has learned.

The proposal, which is outlined in a bill Council members Shaun Abreu and Pierina Sanchez plan to introduce Thursday, would create the Child Care Opioid Antagonist Program to allow child care centers and day cares to receive doses of naloxone through the city Health Department.

“There is no such thing as being too prepared when it comes to protecting our kids. Unfortunately, we learned this lesson in the most devastating way last September, when preschool kids in a Bronx day care center were exposed to opioids, and the parents of 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici received a phone call that no parent should ever have to receive,” Abreu told The News.

“We are introducing this legislation to prevent this nightmare from ever happening again.”

Nicholas died from what investigators believe was fentanyl exposure. At the time of his death, he was being cared for at El Divino Nino Day Care in Fordham Manor in the Bronx. The owner of the day care, Grei Mendez, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito were both charged with murder, manslaughter and assault.

Aside from allowing the Department of Health to provide naloxone, which is used to combat drug overdoses, the bill also seeks to have that agency provide opioid overdose prevention training to day care staff.

Under the bill, the Health Department would be required to provide doses of naloxone to day care centers free of charge upon request. Day care centers could request one dose per child in their care and one for every employee, according to the bill’s language.