Adopt Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Awareness Week.

2025-2026 Session Introduced by Jennifer Balkcom and 24 co-sponsors

Designates SUDEP Awareness Week and encourages school districts to offer seizure-awareness training for staff caring for students with epilepsy; not mandatory.

Regular Message Sent To Senate

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Summary — HB 107: Adopt Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Awareness Week

Status / Key Dates
- Introduced: February 12, 2025 (filed in the North Carolina House)
- Current status: Passed through initial legislative referrals (Education K–12; Health) and pending enactment processes as of the bill text provided.
- Effective date: The act becomes effective when it is signed into law.

Purpose and intent
HB 107 designates an annual awareness period for SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) and promotes increased seizure-awareness training in K–12 schools. The bill aims to raise public and school-system awareness of SUDEP risk factors and to encourage training for personnel responsible for students with epilepsy or who are otherwise predisposed to seizures.

Definitions / Background cited in bill
- SUDEP: the sudden, unexpected death of a person with epilepsy who was otherwise considered healthy.
- Bill notes epidemiology cited by sponsors: more than 1 per 1,000 people with epilepsy die from SUDEP each year; uncontrolled seizures raise the risk to more than 1 per 150.

Key provisions
1. SUDEP Awareness Week
- Establishes the week beginning on the second Sunday in November of each year as “Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Awareness Week” in the State.

Seizure awareness training for school personnel

Declares it the goal of the General Assembly to encourage local boards of education to develop and provide seizure-awareness training for teachers and other school staff who may be responsible for students with epilepsy or predisposition to seizures.
The training encouragement is permissive/goal-oriented (the bill “encourages” local boards), not framed as a mandatory state training requirement in the text provided.

Memorial designation

The training provision is titled the “Shannon Leigh Adcock, Steven Anthony Christos, and Samantha Davis Memorial Act.”

Who is affected
- Primary: students with epilepsy or seizure predisposition and the school personnel who support and supervise them.
- Secondary: local boards of education (encouraged to adopt training), school administrators, parents/guardians and the broader public through awareness activities.
- Fiscal effect: the bill, as drafted, sets an awareness week and encourages training but does not create a statewide training mandate or explicitly appropriate funds; any fiscal impact would depend on local boards’ voluntary adoption of training programs.

Potential impact
- Increased public and school awareness of SUDEP and seizure risks.
- If local boards adopt training, potential improvements in school preparedness for seizure events and better accommodation for students with epilepsy.
- Minimal direct state fiscal impact specified in the bill text; costs would be borne locally if school systems elect to implement training.

Notes on implementation
- The bill does not prescribe curriculum, certification requirements, or funding mechanisms for training; those details would be left to local boards or future implementing legislation/regulations if pursued.