Massachusetts Enacts Instrument Sterilization Law

February 3, 2015

Massachusetts has enacted legislation (Chapter 477 Acts 2014) which requires state public or charter schools which issue wind instruments to k-12 students to inform parents that the instrument has been sanitized and may also be sterilized at the expense of the parent or guardian to insure that all microbial life has been eradicated.  The Department of Public Health is authorized to issue regulations implementing the sterilization requirement.  The new law provides that school district committees must specifically accept the new law before it can take effect in specific districts.