In 2019, New York passed Elijah’s Law, named for a three-year-old who died after his daycare fed him a grilled cheese sandwich despite knowing he had a severe dairy allergy. The law was supposed to make sure no other family got that call. Seven years later, New York still does not require daycares to keep epinephrine on hand or to have a trained adult who knows how to use it. Those are the two things that actually stop a child from dying in those minutes. A bill that just cleared the state legislature would change that.
The legislation, S.8587A in the Senate and A.9245A in the Assembly, passed both houses and now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk for signature, as the Brooklyn Eagle first reported. The Senate passed it on a floor vote of 60 to 1 on June 3, 2026, according to the bill’s official page on the New York State Senate site. If Hochul signs, it takes effect 180 days later.
The bill closes a specific gap. Elijah’s Law already requires childcare facilities to follow state guidelines to prevent, recognize, and respond to anaphylaxis. What it does not do is require them to keep epinephrine on site. The sponsors’ own justification on the Senate site says it plainly: since the 2019 law passed, the Office of Children and Family Services developed guidance for providers, “but more must be done.” A protocol you are told to follow is not the same as a device you can reach for. The new bill makes the device mandatory.
Under the bill, a childcare center would have to keep at least two epinephrine devices on site in appropriate dosages, and at least one staff member trained to administer them would have to be present at all times when children are in the building, per the bill text. The required training covers how to recognize an allergic reaction, weight-based dosing from infants through adults, and proper storage and use. Centers would also have to keep an incident log of allergy emergencies and every time a device is used, notify the parent or guardian, and report the incident to the Department within 24 hours.
It all comes down to time. Epinephrine “when administered quickly, is the only medication that can stop an anaphylactic reaction and save a life,” Allergy Advocates New York said in a May 11, 2026 statement urging passage. The group estimates 2 million New Yorkers live with food allergies, including more than 200,000 children. Nationally, roughly one in 13 children has a food allergy, about 5.6 million kids, or close to two in every classroom, according to the advocacy group FARE, which also notes that more than 40 percent of children with food allergies have already had a severe reaction like anaphylaxis. FARE’s guidance is blunt about the clock: rapid treatment within minutes of the first symptoms is crucial, and delay is a risk factor for death.
That clock ran out for Elijah-Alavi Silvera. On November 3, 2017, staff at his daycare gave the three-year-old a grilled cheese sandwich even though his dairy allergy was documented, he went into anaphylaxis, and he died. No one in the room gave him epinephrine. His parents, Thomas Silvera and Dina Hawthorne, turned that into the Elijah-Alavi Foundation and got the 2019 law named for their son. They are still at it. In a May 27, 2026 op-ed in City & State co-written with the bill’s two sponsors, the parents argued that childcare settings are uniquely dangerous because young children meet new foods constantly and cannot speak up for themselves, which is the whole reason the medicine has to already be in the room.
The politics here are not a knife fight, which is notable in Albany. The primary sponsors are Democratic state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who represents western Brooklyn, and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal of Manhattan, and Republican state Sen. Peter Oberacker of the Oneonta area is a cosponsor, per the Senate bill page and the Brooklyn Eagle. A 60-to-1 Senate vote tells you how controversial “put the EpiPen on the shelf where kids are” turned out to be.
If you are a parent in Bushwick, Williamsburg, or anywhere in the five boroughs with a kid in daycare, the thing to watch is the signature. The bill has passed the legislature but is not law until Hochul signs it, and even then centers get 180 days before the requirement kicks in. You can read the full text and follow its status, including whether and when it is delivered to and signed by the governor, on its official page at nysenate.gov, and Gounardes’ and Rosenthal’s district offices take constituent comment if you want to push for a signature or ask how your child’s center plans to comply.
Featured image: AngelHM / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
