(ARA) – School is supposed to be a safe haven for children, a healthy place where they can learn and grow. Every school year, millions of American children go through our school systems safely and securely. But children with diabetes face a unique set of safety challenges in the classroom.
Diabetes affects about 200,000 children in the United States. Diabetes management is 24/7 for children and parents dealing with the disease; diabetes doesn’t take a break during school hours. Keeping a child with diabetes safe at school requires a collaborative effort among parents, doctors and other diabetes health care professionals, school nurses, teachers and administrators, the American Diabetes Association (Association) points out in its Safe at School Campaign.
There are schools across the country where excellent plans are in place to provide the care that children with diabetes need to thrive at school. Yet not all schools are easing the way for children with diabetes. For example, in California an appeals court recently ruled that state law prohibits school employees who are not nurses from volunteering to help children with diabetes by administering needed insulin. With only one nurse for every 2,700 students in the state, many children with diabetes will not get insulin when they need it – and their health and academic progress will suffer as a result.
“We are very upset with the California ruling because it harms children, and are trying to get it overturned,” says Daniel Kohrman, chair of the Association’s legal advocacy subcommittee. “Diabetes experts from parents to the doctors and nurses who care for children with diabetes to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agree that non-medical school personnel can – and should – be trained to administer insulin.”
To address barriers to essential diabetes care at school — such as the one in California — the Association created its Safe at School Campaign. The Campaign is dedicated to protecting the rights of children nationwide who face discrimination at school because of their diabetes, and provides parents and educators with guidance on how to help children with diabetes stay medically safe at school.
“It’s vital that, as students go to school, they know they will be in a medically safe environment that affords them the same educational opportunities as other students,” says Dr. Larry Deeb, former Association president and the Safe at School Working Group’s co-chair.
The Association works to protect children through a four step process of education, negotiation, and – when needed – litigation and legislation. For example, a recently enacted law in Florida ended a practice in which students with diabetes in Jacksonville were being segregated into a few schools rather than providing care closer to home, while a new law in New Jersey empowers teachers, coaches and others to provide emergency care to students who are experiencing life-threatening low blood glucose and allows students who are able to do so to self-manage their disease.
Although the Safe at School Campaign has made significant progress, there is still much work to be done. To learn how to get help from the Association, to read more about ADA’s Safe at School Campaign or to join the fight to stop diabetes in your community, go to www.diabetes.org/safeatschool or call (800) DIABETES.
