HARRISBURG, Ill. - One in 13 children suffers from some kind of food allergy. Their first reaction often happens at school. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is pushing districts to stockpile emergency epinephrine pens nurses can give to students without a prescription.

"The increasing concern is with food allergies," said Dr. Ronald Mings, a Carbondale allergist.

Mings said potentially deadly allergies show up when kids least expect them.

"One-fourth of children have their first anaphylactic, severe, life-threatening reaction to food while they're in school," said Mings.

Right now children leave their prescribed pens in the school nurses's office. But the new act sets up a couple of different scenarios.

Districts can stockpile EpiPens of their own, and the nurse can give a shot to a student who appears to be having a first-time reaction.

The district may also hand over a pen to a student who forgot his or hers at home.

"I'm concerned that if we start getting our own prescriptions and dispensing them, then where do we go from there," said Dennis Smith, Harrisburg Schools Superintendent.

Smith said the new guildelines leave him uneasy.

"To ask us to diagnose if a student goes down that it's an allergic reaction versus some other thing that we don't know, I think that's putting a little too much burden on us to make a diagnosis," he said.

But Dr. Mings said with a severe reaction, the decision of the school nurse could mean the difference between life and death.

"It's better to give it when you think it should be given than to withhold it when it's needed to be given," said Mings.

A spokesperson for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said districts are not mandated to keep the medicine on hand. The policy is simply a suggestion. You can read information from the attorney general's office here.

A similar law could be proposed in the Kentucky Legislature next session.