Vape-Free Schools

Kansas Vape-Free Schools Toolkit Kansas Vape-Free Schools Toolkit

Webinar: JUUL, Vape, E-Cigarettes: Unifying the Tobacco Prevention Approach Webinar transcription | JUUL, Vape, E-Cigarettes Presentation Slides – No Audio | JUUL, Vape, E-Cigarettes Presentation Slides – With Audio |

NASN School Nurse article, May 2020: The Role of the School Nurse in Creating a Vape Free School |
NASN School Nurse podcast, May 2020: The Role of the School Nurse in Creating a Vape Free School

Downloadable tobacco-free school signage

Clear and visible signage is an important part of a comprehensive tobacco-free school policy. Below is a free downloadable pdf of KDHE and KSDE's tobacco-free school sign as well as a round window-cling version. These signs are also available to order in aluminum versions from KDHE via the "No Cost Tobacco-Free Signage Available!"

• Tobacco-free school round window cling
• Tobacco-free school poster

8 Elements of a Vape-Free School

1. Make sure your school has a Comprehensive Tobacco Free Policy
1. Kansas School Board's Comprehensive Tobacco-Free School Grounds Policy
2. Use the school policy checklist in the Kansas Vape-Free Schools Toolkit – page 10
3. Model policy language in Toolkit – pages 12 & 13
4. Model Tobacco-Free Policy for Kansas Schools (PHLC)
2.  “Get the Facts”
1. Know the Risks; E-Cigarettes and Young People (CDC)
2. How Schools can help Students stay Tobacco-Free (Tobacco Free Kids Campaign)
3. E-cigarettes, “Vapes”, and JUULs: What Schools Should Know (PDF) (American Lung Association)
4. The Impact of E-Cigarettes on the Lung (PDF) (American Lung Association)
3. Share Information with Parents
1. Talk with Your Teen About E-cigarettes: A Tip Sheet for Parents (CDC)
2. What Parents Should Know about E-cigarettes and Kids (American Lung Association)
3. E-Cigarettes and Vaping: What Parents Need to Know (American Academy of Pediatrics)
4. E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products Visual Dictionary (CDC)
4. Promote Health Messaging throughout the school
1. Free print and digital materials, such as posters (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
1. If you don’t think vaping is addictive, it may have already altered your brain.
2. A nicotine free-vape is not a worry-free vape.
2. Free school posters targeting youth with messaging on the harms of nicotine and risk of addiction. These posters were developed by Hopkins One Voice Coalition with input from a youth focus group from Hopkins High school in Hopkins, Minnesota.
1. Think you can low key vape?
2. Vaping to be different? So is everyone else.
3. Vape isn’t harmless water vapor.
4. Vaping to fit in? Typical.
5. Update Health Education Curriculum that addresses harms of nicotine and vape
1. Tobacco Industry Sponsored Youth Prevention Programs in Schools (CDC)
2. Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: E-cigarettes and Vape Pens (Stanford Medicine)
3. HECAT: Module T (Tobacco Use Prevention Curriculum) (CDC)
4. Taking Down Tobacco (The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids)
5. Know the Risks: A Youth Guide to E-Cigarettes (CDC)
6. The Real Cost of Vaping (Scholastic and the FDA) – Grades 9-12
7. CATCH My Breath™ E-cigarette and JUUL Prevention Program (UT Health)
6. Involve and Empower Students to Take Action
1. Resist Tobacco Kansas (Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition)
2. The Kansas Vape Free Schools Toolkit (KDHE, Resist and TFKC)
3. Youth Initiatives through the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
7. Enforce & Communicate your Policy
1. Kansas School Board's Comprehensive Tobacco-Free School Grounds Policy
2. Kansas E-Cigarette/Vaping Task Force Disciplinary Recommendations
3. FREE - Tobacco Free Signage for Kansas Schools (KDHE)
4. Addressing Student Tobacco Use in Schools: Alternative Measures (PHLC)
5. Create Tobacco Free Schools (American Lung Association)
6. INDEPTH: An Alternative to Teen Nicotine Suspension or Citation (American Lung Association)
8. Provide Cessation Resources
1. Free Truth Initiative Quit Programs for Students:
1. This is Quitting
2. Become an Ex®
2. Kansas Tobacco Quitline
3. My Life My Quit

Promoting Awareness

School administration can:

1. Strengthen and review your current tobacco-free and e-cigarette-free policy
2. Issue an advisory to parents & provide them with resources about talking to their teens
3. Promote health messaging throughout the school

School health services can:

1. Educate students and parents on the harms of nicotine and e-cig use
2. Provide resources to parents about talking to teens
3. Share resources to help both students and adults quit tobacco

Health educators and teachers can:

1. Update curriculum that addresses the harms of nicotine and e-cig use
2. Use relevant, youth-friendly lesson plans

Vape-Free School Resources for Parents and School Administrators

• Resist Chapters
• Youth Tobacco Use in Kansas
• CDC Presentation: Know the Risks: A Youth Guide to E-Cigarettes
• CDC Fact Sheet: E-cigarettes shapped like USB flash drives
• Teachers and Parents: That USB stick might be an e-cigarette
• Information about tobacco industry-sponsored youth prevention programs in schools
• The Rising Popularity of JUUL and E-cigarettes
• 10 Things School Principals Need to Know About JUUL
• Model Tobacco-Free School Policy
• Stanford Medicine Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, a module for understanding e-cigarettes
• Youth Vaping and Mental Health in Kansas

Resist is funded by the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition
and sponsored in part by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.