Kansas school leaders have been working to reduce the harms of student vaping and electronic cigarettes. Schools can get help from the Kansas Vaping ECHO for Education program for 2024-25, which is accepting applications until October 1. 

The Vaping ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) project helps school-based teams promote prevention and cessation of vaping and other tobacco and nicotine products by learning from experts, receiving resources, and developing and implementing action plans. There is no cost to participate. The 2024-25 school year will mark the fourth cycle of the annual project.

School nurses, counselors, and administrators who have participated in the program say it has helped them improve their response to students struggling with vaping. 

How to Participate

Schools wishing to take part in this year’s group can apply through this link. Participants must have a team that includes a building-level administrator and a health champion (such as school nurse, school counselor, health educator). Up to five individuals from each school can participate. These participants can include teachers, coaches, school resource officers, and others. The application requires signatures from the primary contact completing the application, as well as the school principal and superintendent. The application deadline is Tuesday, October 1 at 5 p.m.  

This year will include a mix of individual on-line learning and on-line group events for all participants. The fall semester will focus on developing a local action plan and the spring semester will focus on implementing that plan.

An Issue for Schools

Vaping poses significant health risks for students, primarily due to the inhalation of nicotine and other chemicals. Nicotine exposure during adolescence can impair brain development, affecting attention, learning, and impulse control. Vaping also can harm lung health, leading to conditions like chronic bronchitis, and has been linked to the outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI).

Surveys indicate that students who vape have more than double the symptoms of depression as those who have never used vaping products, are more than twice as likely to self-harm and consider or attempt suicide and are far more likely to abuse other substances such as alcohol and marijuana. An increasing issue for schools has been students using vaping to inhale THC, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis.

The Vaping ECHO for Education program helps schools reduce the risk of these issues by broadening efforts to include prevention, cessation, and changing attitudes, while still retaining appropriate disciplinary consequences. 

The Vaping Health Crisis and Response

Vaping among young people increased dramatically between 2014 and 2019, raising major health concerns. In 2019 the Kansas State Board of Education formed a task force to assist schools in dealing with e-cigarettes/vaping. The task force developed recommended district policies for tobacco-free school grounds and e-cigarette/vaping discipline. The work also led to the development of the Vaping ECHO for Education program to assist schools with vaping prevention and cessation, headed by the Kansas Health Institute with support from other partners. 

There is evidence that these efforts are working. Both state and national data indicate youth vaping has declined somewhat since 2019. According to the Kansas Communities that Care Survey of students, Kansas youth who have tried vaping dropped from 19 percent in 2021 to 16 percent in 2024. The percentage of those who vaped at least once during the past 20 days dropped from just under 7 percent to 5.3 percent. However, with approximately 240,000 students in grades six through twelve, that indicates at least 12,000 students are vaping at least once a month. Rates of vaping are more than twice the rates of regular cigarette use.

Vaping ECHO and School District Action

Participants in the Vaping ECHO program have given it high marks. Early efforts to address vaping placed the emphasis on suspending students, which had negative academic impact on students and did little to change behavior, especially as THC vaping has become more common. “We were looking for something where we could still have a consequence, but we could help the kid with their issues, help the family, and try to get the kid on a path towards earning credits. That’s why we were interested in the ECHO program,” said Andover High School (USD 385) Principal Brent Riedy.

It was a similar story in Shawnee Mission (USD 512). “We worked on how to stop thinking only about the discipline of sending kids home for three days if they're caught with a vape,” said Shawnee Mission North High School Nurse MaryAlice Kelly. “Because then they were just going to go home with a vape, vape at home, and come back to school and keep vaping,” 

As a result of work through the Vaping ECHO program and local support, both districts say they implemented the following new strategies to address vaping: 

• Adopted new vaping disciplinary policies, based State Board’s recommendations, which put more emphasis on treatment and assistance.
• Increased communication with parents.
• Targeted efforts on student populations at greater risk of vaping.
• Involved students, including creating “Resist” chapters.