Poison Calls About Young Kids Ingesting Stuff at School Surge

New research following a quarter century of calls to U.S. poison centers reveals a surprising shift in where intentional substance exposures at school are rising fastest. The overall reported rate climbed 77.5 percent between 2000 and 2024 among children ages 6 to 18. But the steepest increase belongs to Young Kids in elementary school, ages 6 to 10, whose reported rate rose 287 percent, from 3.1 to 11.9 reports per 100,000 children. The study, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2026, pulls a spotlight that has long stayed fixed on teenagers toward much younger students instead.

The analysis comes from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Central Ohio Poison Center, which examined more than 122,700 intentional exposures at school reported over 25 years, as reported by Medical Daily. Most cases involved a single substance, and 56.7 percent involved boys. One important caveat: the data count only cases someone actually phoned in, so the real number of exposures at schools is almost certainly higher.

A Flip in the Age Pattern

Among middle schoolers ages 11 to 13, the reported rate more than doubled over the study period, rising from 10 to 21.3 per 100,000 children. By about 2015, that rate had overtaken the high-school rate, according to News-Medical. High-schoolers ages 14 to 18 were the one group whose reported rate fell, dipping about 4 percent, from 10.1 to 9.7. Yet teens still made up nearly half of all reported cases, and they continued to experience the highest rates of serious medical outcomes and hospital admissions. That contrast — climbing reports among Young Kids, worst outcomes among teens — is the core of the study.

"By about 2015, the reported exposure rate among middle-school-aged children had surpassed that among high-school-aged youth," said Hannah Hays, MD, co-author of the study and medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center. "These findings tell us that prevention needs to begin earlier, while older adolescents also need ready access to clinical and mental health support."

What Young Kids Are Reaching For

What counts as an intentional exposure may surprise you. Poison centers use the term to separate deliberate use from accidents, like a toddler swallowing a pill by mistake. It does not always mean a child was trying to get high. Among Young Kids, the leading categories were ordinary things: cosmetics and personal care products, arts and crafts supplies, plants, and small objects or toys, each accounting for roughly 14 to 15 percent of cases. That pattern matters for schools serving Young Kids, because prevention there looks less like drug education and more like keeping everyday products out of reach and out of dares.

Middle schoolers showed a similar mix at slightly different levels: cosmetics and personal care products at 13 percent, arts and crafts supplies at 11 percent, small objects or toys at 8 percent, and pain relievers at 8 percent. The picture changes in high school, where the leading categories were pain relievers at 15 percent, stimulants and street drugs at 12 percent, sedative and sleep medications at 10 percent, and cough and cold medicines at 9 percent.

The Most Serious Cases Still Hit Teens

The reasons behind exposures split into three groups: intentional misuse, meaning improper use for a reason other than seeking a high, made up 62 percent of cases; abuse, or use aimed at a psychoactive effect, accounted for 24 percent; and suspected self-harm or suicidal intent accounted for 14 percent. The stakes rise sharply with the reason and the substance. Abuse-related exposures were more than four times more likely to produce a serious medical outcome than non-abuse cases, and suspected self-harm cases were about twice as likely. Exposures involving medications were around ten times more likely to lead to a serious outcome and roughly fourteen times more likely to lead to intensive or non-critical care admission than non-medication exposures. Two deaths were recorded across the 25 years.

Most exposures did not require hospital care. About 64 percent of children were not treated at a health care facility, and roughly one in ten had a serious medical outcome. High-schoolers carried the highest risk of serious outcomes, which tracks with their higher rates of abuse and suspected self-harm. The takeaway for families with Young Kids is twofold: the exposures are growing, but the most dangerous situations still concentrate among older teens, which is why researchers want prevention to start early and mental health support to stay ready for adolescents.

What This Means for Families and Schools

If you are in Gen Z with younger siblings, this study is your cue to start the conversation before the teen years. For Young Kids, that can be as simple as explaining that medicine, craft supplies, and other products are not for tasting, sniffing, or taking on a dare. Keeping medicines locked up and counted at home also limits what can end up in a backpack. Teachers and school nurses often spot trouble first: a child who seems unusually sleepy, dizzy, or unwell after lunch or recess should be checked promptly. Even Young Kids who would never seek out drugs can be exposed, so the habit of naming risky products matters early.

For families of middle and high schoolers, the questions to ask your school include how student medications are stored, what happens after a suspected exposure, and whether mental health screening is available, according to Bright Surf. Gary Smith, MD, the study's senior author and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's, said the results underscore the need for coordinated strategies that combine substance use education with mental health screening and intervention, and for schools, clinicians, poison centers, and public health professionals to work together.

There are limits to what the data can tell us. The study was not designed to explain why rates rose among younger children, and changes in reporting habits, school nurse practices, or poison center awareness over 25 years could play a role, as reported by Phys.org. Future research will need to look beyond poison center calls. But the direction is clear enough that the researchers want prevention to begin in early childhood, not adolescence.

Save this number: the national Poison Help line, 1-800-222-1222, gives free, confidential advice from experts around the clock. If a child may be at risk of self-harm, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text. For more stories on keeping kids healthy, browse our Health topic page, and see our recent look at how the screen time and teen mental health link may be overstated.