FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                          June 11, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

LANSING, MI – State Rep. Pauline Wendzel had a clean day in Lansing. In a matter of hours, two of her bills cleared committee, one keeping Michigan students in the classroom and the other clearing the air in every operating room in the state.

Keeping students in the classroom

First, the House Education Committee sent House Bill 5044 to the House floor. The bill ensures students with medically necessary treatments, such as applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy for autism, can get care at school without missing valuable class time. It sets clear statewide policy requiring school districts, intermediate school districts, and public school academies to let students with a prescription, order, or recommendation from a licensed health care professional receive treatment in the classroom.

“Parents shouldn’t have to choose between their child’s health care and their education,” Rep. Wendzel said. “Today we moved one step closer to making sure they never have to.”

Clearing the air for nurses and patients

Hours later, the Senate Health Policy Committee sent House Bill 4779 to the Senate floor. Already passed by the House, the bill requires health facilities that use heat-producing tools like electrosurgical instruments and lasers to put a surgical smoke evacuation policy in place and follow it.

Surgical smoke carries roughly 150 chemicals, including 16 EPA priority pollutants, along with viral material and other hazards. Operating room nurses report respiratory problems at twice the rate of the general population. By one widely cited estimate, a single day of procedures using electrocautery exposes operating room staff to the equivalent of 27 cigarettes.

“A nurse can spend a day in a Michigan operating room and breathe in the equivalent of 27 cigarettes without ever lighting one,” Rep. Wendzel said. “The equipment to prevent that already sits in most operating rooms. House Bill 4779 makes sure it gets used.”

Both bills now head to their respective floors for further consideration.

###