A parent registering their food allergic child has a ton of worries. They fear for their child’s safety, they fear about him/her having an episode of anaphylaxis as result of an accidental contact, and they fear how the school’s faculty and staff will react in the event of an allergic reaction. There is nothing more frightening than the fear of their child’s life being threatened. As Admission Director, you have a responsibility to assure these parents of their child’s safety—and have policies in place to enforce your word.
It is best if a child with special needs such as a serious food allergy registers early. This will give you enough time to properly provide the family with your school’s information, protocols, and procedures for handling food allergies. This will also give you ample time to make the faculty and staff familiar with this child so they can be aware of reaction symptoms and on guard for warning signs of a potential contact with an allergen.
Building a support team for children with food allergies is important. Likely candidates are the child’s teacher, the School Head, the lunchroom staff, and of course your school nurse. All these people will be the child’s main supporters for keeping them safe while attending class. They will need to know how to handle a reaction, what medications are used, and what typical reaction symptoms look like in this student. It’s a good idea to set up a meeting for the parents and each person on their child’s support team so they can build relationships, ease apprehensions, and be able to explain what warning signs should be paid extra attention.
If there is another family with a food-allergic child enrolled in your school, you might also want to ask if they would feel comfortable being part of the family’s support team. Not all families are comfortable sharing or opening up to others, but usually families facing the same challenges feel comfort in knowing they are not alone.
The level of comfort the parents feel with their child’s teacher is important. After they meet, make sure to touch back with the family to see if they are confident in the teacher’s capability to react to their child’s potential contact with an allergen.
Educating classmates as well as frequent reinforcement will be a necessity for the teacher. Simply informing classmates once is not enough. It’s too easy for students to forget that sharing their peanut butter candy could potentially endanger their friend. It’s also a good idea to keep everyone on the child’s support team updated. Never assume that staff and faculty members are well educated about food allergies! Reading about reactions verses having experience working with children with food allergies are very different. It’s important for those with limited or no experience to be trained on how to react.
It’s also important that you obtain and share with the appropriate staff and faculty members the child’s medical release form the family. If your school requires parents to fill out medical history cards for the school nurse, it is important that all those on the child’s support team are also informed. This information could be vital in the event of an reaction.
Your school’s action plan is also something you want to provide to the family. You can print a template from the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) here. If the family has an action plan of their own, this is something you’ll want to include in the student’s file as well as share with the support team.
Remember, the most important thing is student safety—for all your school’s students. If your school can’t support a child with special food allergies, it is best to be upfront with the family right away.
Additional ISM articles of interest for Consortium Gold Members
I&P Vol. 32 No. 10 Records Retention in the Admission Office
