The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky finds that:
(1) Asthma is the seventh-most prevalent chronic health condition in the United States and is the leading serious chronic illness of children;
(2) Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under age fifteen (15) and accounts for almost one (1) in six (6) of all pediatric emergency room visits;
(3) Approximately two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) Kentuckians suffer from asthma, including over sixty thousand (60,000) children;
(4) Nationally more than five thousand four hundred (5,400) individuals die from asthma each year;
(5) Asthma is the number-one cause of school absences attributed to chronic conditions;
(6) Asthma is manageable with treatment and medications;
(7) Physicians and other health care practitioners instruct children with asthma in the proper use of asthma medications; and (8) KRS 158.830 to 158.836 shall be construed to provide unobstructed access to asthma medications for elementary and secondary school students with asthma.