Agreement holds schools accountable for providing diabetic students services and care
The California Department of Education (CED) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recently announced an agreement that holds schools accountable for providing diabetic students with adequate services and care. The agreement was struck almost two years after a class-action lawsuit was filed against CED and two Bay Area school districts that allegedly did not help provide proper treatment at school. The department will send out a legal advisory notice about the new regulations to school districts throughout the state. Under the agreement, there are seven categories of individuals who can administer insulin at school, including school nurses, other healthcare professionals, relatives, friends, and volunteer school employees who receive proper training. Although officials in most Ventura County school districts say they already provide adequate services for diabetic students, the new rules mean some districts will have to train more staff and volunteers. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the state has continued to rise since 2001, according to a recent report released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. "All of the data both nationwide and in California suggests that the prevalence of diabetes is increasing and that this is a problem no longer just limited to adults," says Sue Babey, co-author of the report. "This suggests we are going to have to be more prepared as a society, and this includes schools." Although Jean Borowsky, a school nurse with Simi Valley Unified School District, believes the new rules are a positive for schools that currently do not provide proper staffing, she still has some concerns. "I have mixed feelings about training unlicensed staff to give insulin shots," she says. "It takes judgment of someone with medical training to do that. Anyone can give the child an insulin shot, but measuring how much insulin the student should get is critical. If not done right, the child's blood sugar can get dangerously low."
Ventura County Star By Majorie Henandez
[Editor’s Note: The lawsuit sought to compel public schools to provide diabetic students with injections of insulin and assistance in monitoring their conditions. See the first link below, which in turn has links to other resources. See also the CED notice and the ADA’s information on the suit.]
NSBA School Law pages on ADA suit
CED legal advisory notice to school districts
ADA website page on settlement agreement