Deborah- I DO remember you!! And I’m so pleased to know that you’ve been advocating for your son and getting things achieved. …Its still to early for me to issue a call-to-action. A great deal of careful consideration is being given to next steps, and I promise to inform the diabetes community as soon as possible. …In the meantime, families must persist in invoking the rights afforded them by federal and state laws. The nurses may be strong, but we must be stronger! Regards, Lisa
This is idiotic; when I was growing up, we did not have a nurse in the school; this would mean the child would be prohibited from self-dosing? Sorry, but nurses are not always available in schools, and what this is really doing is protecting the schools, not protecting our children!
Scott, thanks for your birdseye view…this does NOT mean that students who are able to perform self-care skills are unable…they can. Indeed, you are so right when you say this isn’t protecting our children. The laws were written with the intent that the schools must accommodate the child. Instead, that intent seems to have been grossly turn around!
Cathy:
You totally were lucky with your son’s teacher being diabetic. I had some wonderful teachers throughout my school years. In Jr. and Sr. High School some of them even knew my father (He was also a teacher in the Dade Co. School System). My school years were good medically (Except 4th grade and my teacher Mrs. Cerra was an angel dealing with my issues). In that regard I was also one of the lucky ones. I can’t imagine not being able to care for myself and having to wait for a nurse to do basic treatment. My first endo (who passed some years back) gave my mother some wonderful advice. He said that she/I had to doctor me. Only the diabetic truly knows how they feel. By the time a child is school age (5 or 6) they can verbalize what is wrong and I think Diabetic children mature faster (by necessity) to be able to do that.
I was completely shocked and incensed hearing this. The only result I can see of this ruling is the death of a number of young children who have the misfortune of having autoimmune diabetes. On the surface, it seems to completely overturn the recent ruling explicitly including diabetes under the ADA umbrella.
The parents of children with Diabetes in California need to hire a great (nasty) attorney and file a super lawsuit, based on discrimination. Because that is what it is…and no child needs to die in order to make things happen!
Unfortunately, appealing to the logic and reason of the situation does nothing. I guess they have to hit them right back and not back down.
Who came up with this bill?
Whatever were they thinking? Or not thinking at all…
I’m afraid children with diabetes often have to be their own advocates when they are at school, even if there is a nurse on staff. The upside of teaching children how to care for themselves is that they will be healthier and hopefully know to speak up when they need assistance. Of course every school should have a nurse but until then, I hope children with diabetes in California will be injecting the right amount of insulin.
I grew up in Canada, we didn’t have nurses that I’m aware of, I always carried my insulin pens and a snack for lows in my backpack, the office staff also had a supply of snacks for lows in case I didn’t have one with me. I brought the stuff in and the secretary kept it in a drawer by her desk, I could go get it when ever I needed.
I seriously don’t understand all this crap about school nurses monitoring injections, testing etc. Why? As diabetics we’re trained how to take care of ourselves, we have a specialist team of dr’s, nurses, nutritionists, etc that work with us on a regular basis. No offense, to the school nurse, but I’d wager to say that diabetes managament is a little beyond their specialty. It’s a very specific condition and that is why we have specialists. If the school were to employ a CDE to monitor diabetic students, that’s another story, but that’s not going to happen, we’re a minority, and it’s just not feasibled.
I don’t know how kids in the US handle it, the schools in my area of Seattle no longer allow backpacks, the kids have to carry all their books in their arms from class to class. It’s getting totally ridiculous! If they are worried about things being concealed in backpacks, get a freaking metal detector then, but I think this is still so over blown and it’s not because I grew up sheltered, in my Jr High we had regular locker raids by the cops, with drug sniffing dogs, gang fights and even the occasional drive by shooting. I still got to carry my backpack, take my own injections, test my own blood sugar when and where I wanted and treat my own low’s how I saw fit. Maybe because they were busy dealing with the drugs and violence, we diabetics flew under the radar?? I doubt it, I think it’s because there were no class action lawsuits against the school board over some medical emergency that somehow became the school’s fault, or even has the potential to be. America - the greatest place to live when you’re an attorney. disclaimer: I have nothing against attorney’s in general, I have several in my family 
I’m a nurse from Portugal. Here we teach our children with Diabetes to do their shots and so as their parents.
and when the schools call for help we teach their staff too.
sometimes parents goes to school to give their children the shots, but thats because they can and they want to.
we try to prepare our children to be as independent as they can and we nurses aren´t involved on the day-to-day care of diabetic children in school unless people calls s on that purpose.
Trista,
You make a VERY good point (well, actually lots of them). I was involved in the initial back and forth between nurses and DREDF. One of the main complaints from the school nurses about training non-medical personnel in diabetes care was that they did not feel competent to train. Specifically, that they themselves admitted they did not know enough about diabetes care to teach others.
Yet, these are the nurses that are caring for our kids and now refusing to let anyone else who does know about diabetes help with insulin. Parents who were willing to provide training are no longer allowed to do so because the nurses have made law now so that even a trained non-medical person cannot give insulin anymore.
how does this affect a child if there is no nurse and they have an extreme low and can’t feed themselves and need a glucagon shot? I was just reading a document for parents and schools. It says to have a go to person at school for extra help in case the nurse is not there. Well now they can’t administer the life saving shot. Just call 911 and hope they make it?
it sounds like the judge was ruling based on state law so perhaps the best course of action is to petition CA state assembly?
what about insulin pumps?
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS: Federal and state law still mandates that the school must provide any healthcare services to any child in need with a “disability”, of which type 1 diabetes is widely recognized as being,. California Ed Code 49414.5 (state statute) explicitly states that voluntary non-licensed school personnel may be trained to administer glucagon…nothing has changed that. If there is no volunteer to administer glucagon, the school must still provide a person/nurse to do this without delay. Non-licensed school personnel are still able to assist a child experiencing hypoglycemia by providing appropriate treatment (juice, glucose tabs, etc) and supervise a child who is able to self-administer insulin (e.g. observe the child pressing pump buttons and visually confirm the data has been entered correctly) and supervise a child who is able to self-perform blood glucose checks.
There are several different legal paths that may be pursued, which the legal team is now evaluating. Some of the options include: re-open the federal class action lawsuit that resulted in the Legal Advisory issued by CDE stating that unlicensed school personnel may administer insulin when no nurse is available; file an appeal for this state lawsuit with the intent of a stay, halting the judge’s ruling and leaving the Legal Advisory intact until an appeal is heard; legislative initiative supported by the diabetes community and other constituencies negatively impacted by this restriction on who may administer medication in the school setting.
Regardless of the path(s) pursued, it is crucial that the entire diabetes community rally behind the calls to action as those instructions are issued in the coming days, weeks and months. Our children have no voice to advocate for their own safety and well-being…we must be that voice for them!
I’m from South Africa - we do not have nurses at our schools. My experience is not very good I experience resistance from the school regarding training for diabetes. When my son get’s a hypo they send him (on his own) to the office where the secretary phones me to come and fetch him. I resigned from my job to be available (I now do work from home after a agreement with my boss). We live very close to school which helps.
Lahle don’t give up!!! I applaud you for your spirit and determination to do something about it….it is time for all school staff be educated/trained in diabetes management…not only the nurses, but staff members in school should be fully aware and educated on diabetes and/or any other life treating diseases…it is sad, but most teacher have never heard of Type 1 Diabetes…
We are from South Florida and my son is attending a small private school with no nurses…the school is very supportive and try their best to keep Ryan safe…they are afraid of the Glucagon shot and to be honest I doubt they will ever use it, but they do their best to accommodate Ryan’s needs…we agreed that in the event of an emergency, to use the gel and call 911…its being 4 years since Ryan was diagnosed and attending the same school…no issues nor emergencies…although public schools offer nurses, I am very afraid that Ryan will get lost in the system and not receive the assistance on time…I have heard of many teachers that would not touch or help a diabetic child because of the school process requires the nurse to do so…here in South Florida Teachers are not trained or educated on how to handle/help a diabetic child…they do not even understand Type 1 Diabetes….they are told to call the school nurse…recently an Elementary Teacher snatched a pump from a child thinking it was a cell phone…needless to say that the School decided to educate all the teachers on Type 1 Diabetes and insulin pumps to avoid future incidents…the same scenario was repeated in another school within a month…
You are very lucky to have an understanding boss. I’m appalled by the ignorance in your school system though. Not that ours are much better, from the looks of it! It seems that too many people think of diabetes as “a chronic disease that is no big deal if you get exercise and good diet” and don’t understand that it can be fatal if it’s not monitored closely. I guess as parents we’re called upon to be very noisy on behalf of our kids. I fully intend to be very VERY obnoxious and annoying if my school system gives me any problems. Although they’ve already dealt with some diabetic kids so hopefully I won’t have to be.
My son won’t be in school for another few years yet, but already the doctors I’m dealing with tell me it’s vital to be extremely proactive with schools. As far as I’m concerned, that means that, before the school year begins, ALL teachers and staff who have the potential to be in contact with my son will be given the information about his condition, signs of trouble, and the treatment plan. If that means I have to spend the two weeks prior to his first day in kindergarten knocking on the doors of every teacher, nurse, secretary, and frigging janitor in the school, then that’s what I’m going to do! Heck, if I have my way, everyone from the town school committee to the high school gym coach is going to be aware that Eric Hamblin has Type 1 diabetes, takes insulin, and should be given juice if he becomes hypoglycemic (and by God they’ll know what it means!)
I don’t mean to point fingers but it really shocks me that any of these teachers should have been unaware that a particular child wore an insulin pump… or ignorant of what the effects of taking that pump would be on the child’s health… although, I suppose in some schools with high enrollment, it may be tough for a teacher to keep tabs on who’s who. Even so, as parents we need to INSIST that teachers are educated, and to be as pushy about it as necessary to make sure that it happens—and if that means taking legal action, so be it. Teachers can’t be faulted for ignorance unless they try to remain ignorant, and the federal disabilities protections mandate that they can’t.
But to snatch something away from a kid without asking the child what it is, well, that just strikes me as poor manners on the part of the teacher, and at the very least the teacher ought to be reprimanded for rudeness, if not for endangering his/her health out of ignorance!
Please take time to read this terrific article in today’s LA Times titled Young Diabetics at Heart of School Nurse Dispute.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez23-2008nov23,0,7760757.column
Thanks to Dr. Fran Kaufman for her expertise, and Greta Parker, Liliana Parker, Jeffery Ehrlich and Lahle Wolfe for courageously sharing their stories with LA Times readers.
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY.
-Lisa Shenson
What is wrong with these people??? How can they just stand by and let that happen? All they worry about is the big L (Liability). Not the health and well-being of a child. I am so sorry you had to go through this.
I think it is so sad that a child has to be treated this way because they have Diabetes. We think we are so civilized but this ruling proves different. Why are children with nut allergies and developmental issues taken care of so well but a child with Diabetes ignored? It is probably because Type One Diabetes is still rare. That is just wrong.