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Safe at School Campaign

Some schools in our country are doing a fabulous job in meeting the needs of students with diabetes. Unfortunately, in many other schools, students are not able to effectively manage their disease at school or in school-sponsored activities. The American Diabetes Association has long been involved in working to end discrimination against students with diabetes and help educate school personnel about how they can help meet the needs of students with diabetes.

To further these efforts, the Association launched the Safe at School campaign last summer to ensure that all students with diabetes are educated in a medically safe environment and have the same access to educational opportunities as their peers. The Association continues to move forward with its campaign through its four-step approach of education, negotiation, litigation, and legislation.

Background


The care of a student with diabetes requires management 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For students with type 1 diabetes, and for some with type 2 diabetes, that means careful monitoring of their blood glucose (sugar) levels throughout the day and administering multiple doses of insulin therapy. Blood glucose levels that are well managed help young people avoid the dangerous short-term complications of blood glucose levels that are too high or too low, stave off the long-term complications of diabetes, and feel better and be more productive at school and at play. Accordingly, students with diabetes need a supportive environment to help them take care of their diabetes throughout the school day and at school-sponsored activities. In an effort to accomplish this goal, the Association is advocating for a team approach to school-based diabetes management. School principals, administrators, nurses, teachers, coaches, bus drivers, health care, and lunch-room staff -- along with parents, personal health care providers, and students with diabetes -- all play an important role in making the school experience safe and productive for students with diabetes.

Diabetes Management at School


At its core, effective school-based diabetes management requires three things:

  1. All school staff members who have responsibility for a student with diabetes should receive training that provides a basic understanding of the disease and know who to contact in an emergency.

  2. A small group of school staff members should receive training from a qualified health care professional such as a physician or a nurse, in student-specific routine and emergency care. This is done so that a staff member is always available for younger or less-experienced students who require assistance with their diabetes management (e.g., administering insulin, checking their blood glucose, or choosing an appropriate snack) and for all students with diabetes in case of an emergency (including administration of glucagon) when a school nurse is absent or otherwise unavailable.

  3. Those students who are capable of doing so should be permitted to self-manage their diabetes in the classroom and during all school activities.

Role of the School Nurse and Other School Personnel


The school nurse is the most appropriate person in the school setting to provide care for a student with diabetes. Many schools, however, do not have a full-time nurse, and sometimes a single nurse must cover a large number of schools. Moreover, even when a nurse is assigned to a school full time, he or she will not always be available during the school day, during extracurricular activities, or on field trips. Yet, because diabetes management is needed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – and diabetes emergencies can happen at any time -- school personnel should be prepared to provide diabetes care at school and at all school-sponsored activities in which a student with diabetes participates. The Association and pediatric diabetes health care professionals around the country strongly endorse training non-medical school personnel to provide this care (in the absence of a school nurse) as the best -- and safest -- solution. The school nurse or another qualified health professional should be involved with training of appropriate staff and providing professional supervision and consultation regarding routine and emergency care of students with diabetes.

The Campaign


The Safe at School campaign utilizes a multi-pronged approach that is supported by the energy and commitment of its top volunteer leaders and grassroots advocates, and utilizing education, negotiation, litigation, and legislative strategies. Much discrimination has been -- and will continue to be -- eliminated through educating school personnel about current methods of diabetes management. However, some states have laws or policies that present legal barriers to the performance of diabetes care tasks by non-medically licensed personnel or to diabetes self-care. For this reason, the campaign will further the Association's efforts to pass school diabetes care legislation in such states so that teachers, school administrators, school secretaries, and other personnel may be trained to provide diabetes care in the absence of a school nurse, and so that students who are able to do so can effectively self-manage their disease.

The Association has created model school diabetes care legislation that maintains that the school nurse plays a central role in the coordination and provision of diabetes care to students, provides for the student's health care providers to provide necessary instructions, authorizes performance of diabetes care tasks by trained non-medical school personnel, requires the establishment of training guidelines, permits a student to provide self-care as authorized by his or her personal health care provider and parent, and prohibits restriction of school choice.

The Safe at School campaign will include efforts to:

  • Educate the public and the media about issues facing children with diabetes at school.
  • Improve the situation for students who do not have any school personnel trained to provide diabetes care.
  • Counter efforts by those who are jeopardizing the health and safety of students with diabetes by taking measures to prevent the training of non-medical school personnel to provide needed care for students with diabetes.

As is true for children with other chronic diseases, students with diabetes are more likely to succeed in school when students, parents, school nurses, principals, teachers, other school personnel, and the student's health care providers work together to ensure effective diabetes management. The Safe at School campaign will enable the Association to enhance its efforts to ensure that every student with diabetes is able to effectively manage his or her disease at school and in school-related activities.

Safe at School Campaign Materials & Resources

Diabetes Forecast - FREE ISSUE!

Advocacy Action Center

Meet Tesch West - National Youth Advocate

School Walk for Diabetes

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