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Living with Diabetes

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Safe at School

   
Safe at School
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For a student using insulin, diabetes must be managed 24/7, including the many hours spent at school, on field trips and in extra-curricular activities.

Some families can send their child with diabetes to school in the morning and feel confident that the school will be prepared to provide the diabetes care that meets their child's needs. Other families worry that their child won't have access to good diabetes management, that their child will be excluded from activities or have to take an exam when blood glucose levels are plummeting.

Safe at School: Safety and Fairness for Children with Diabetes (PDF)
An overview of the Association's Safe at School Campaign

If you need help with a school diabetes care problem, call 1-800-DIABETES (342-2383) for free resources and to speak to an ADA legal advocate.

 

Legal Protections

The development of a written accommodations and care plan developed under federal disability law is the best way to ensure that diabetes needs are met in a way that maximizes safety, health, learning and participation.

Position Statements and Resources for Care at School

Resources and information on how to care for a student with diabetes at school.

Resolving Challenges

When conflicts about care at school arise, it is often because parents and schools have different understandings about care at school. 

School Staff Training

The school nurse is vital in coordinating and providing diabetes care at school. S/he also has the responsibility and training to implement the student's individual diabetes care plan. 

Special Considerations

Many children with diabetes will have specific needs in certain situations. This section will help plan for those situations. 

A Team Effort

Families, schools and health care providers must work together for the benefit of the student with diabetes.

Written Care Plans

Creating a plan for how diabetes will be managed at school should be a team effort that includes school staff, families, and health care providers

Advanced School Advocacy Training Program

The ASAT Program consists of trained volunteers who provide assistance to parents/guardians to ensure that their children with diabetes are safe at school and have the same opportunity to excel as other children.

Latesha and Loretta Taylor

A Mother's Plea: Let Her Learn

My name is Latesha Taylor and I'm scared for my child's future.

Every day my 9-year old daughter Loretta goes to school – her life is at risk.

You see, Loretta has diabetes. Yet her school system doesn't believe that it's their job to provide basic care for a child with diabetes when a school nurse isn't available. Other states have adopted laws that allow school employees to provide diabetes care as trained volunteers, but not mine.

Instead, I'm forced to leave my job every time the nurse is absent or unavailable because the school system refuses to train other staff members in how to care for her. It also means Loretta is falling way behind in school. And because she has so many absences from leaving school when there's no nurse available, she's even been cited for truancy!

Many of the over 200,000 children with diabetes in America have no support system in school when they need insulin or face a diabetes emergency. Some are even turned away from their neighborhood school simply because they have diabetes.

I'm sure you'll agree with me that this is discriminatory and must be stopped. School personnel who aren't health care professionals can – and should – be trained to provide diabetes care when a school nurse isn't available.

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American Diabetes Association • 1701 North Beauregard Street • Alexandria, VA 22311 • 1-800-DIABETES (800-342-2383)

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