We will be having a new student enter our schools that has a severe peanut allergy. We will be reviewing policies and procedures to make our schools a safe place for them. Here is an email from DPI that will help guide us. We have also obtained sample school policies from WASB for review.
Hi Katy,
Sorry I didn't get to answering your email yesterday, but am kind of glad I didn't because I attended a session on anaphylaxis last night, presented by Dr. Bukstein, a very respected pediatric allergist with Dean Healthcare. He confirmed what I was going to respond to you and gave me some other pointers as well. So as far as banning any food substance from a school, we ask the school to consider the following first:
1. By "banning" a food item from a school, such as peanuts, the school may be placing itself under more liability by inferring that there is no chance of a child coming in contact with that food item. The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), does not support banning of food items in schools, but suggests that schools take measures to ensure a child's safety by making the school "peanut aware" or "allergen aware" and building policies around that concept.
2. Bans create a false sense of security. In banning a food product such as peanuts, be aware that this means much more than banning peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or peanut butter cookies. In schools where peanuts have been banned, accidental ingestion causing anaphylactic reactions have occurred from baked goods and candies purchased from the school store or given out as classroom treats or treats from the bus driver. Peanut butter or products with peanut butter in the ingredients have been used in classroom projects and art projects. Most people are not aware that some brands of jelly beans have peanut flour in them.
3. A ban can pit parent against parent. It is a divisive force when what we need is the cooperation of everyone in the school to form a safety net around the children at risk. A training program where everyone understands what foods cause allergies, what are the symptoms of an allergic reaction for that child, what action to take, and where medications are stored unites people to work together.
4. How do you decide which allergen(s) to ban (i.e., peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish, shell fish, etc.)? By banning one known food allergen, you may be setting a precedence for the request of banning other food allergen that children in your schools have a reaction to. The majority of allergic reaction are caused by these eight foods listed here.
5. In order for a ban to work, one would have to have everyone in the school constantly reading ingredients labels and calling manufacturers to determine if products contain any of the offending food. While this is reasonable to ask of foodservice in accommodating a documented disability based on a severe food allergy, it isn't a realistic expectation of parents or other school staff when checking any and all sources of foods that children may be exposed to throughout the school day. For example, who would take the responsibility of going through each and every student's snacks or lunches brought from home to make sure there were not any items containing the allergen or processed in a factory or line where there was a potential for cross-contamination.
6. Creating a ban that stigmatizes those with the allergy may be offensive and discriminatory. The majority of children and adults with food allergies want to be treated as "normal" as possible. Creating a ban that stigmatizes them is not what they want. It also doesn't teach young children how to live with the allergy, which may be a life-long allergy. Creative thinkers can devise options to provide safety for peanut-allergic students without isolating them or restricting what the other children bring in.
I have also attached a handout from the presentation I attended last night, which has some very good information in it about what studies have shown in regard to food allergies in schools. I would also recommend that you and the school nurse watch the following webcasts on special dietary needs to help determine what steps the school may want to take: Looking at Special Needs Through Different Eyes and Working Together to Accommodate Special Dietary Needs (http://dpi.wi.gov/fns/sntwebcasts.html#sdn). You will also want to make sure that you communicate well with all stakeholders, including the family.linda.krueger@dpi.wi.gov
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have further questions. Have a great weekend! Linda
Linda Krueger, SNS
Nutrition Program Consultant
School Nutrition Team
Department of Public Instruction
125 South Webster St, PO Box 7841
Madison, WI 53707-7841
608-267-9128 Office
608-267-0363 Fax
Friday, April 29, 2011
Children's Mental Health Awareness Week is May 1-7.
Children's Mental Health Awareness Week is May 1-7.
From DPI Homeless Consultant (Jennifer.Rubin@dpi.wi.gov)
One of the primary goals of Children's Mental Health Awareness week is to promote general awareness that infants, children, and teens can have mental health issues. Did you know that one in five children (20%) have a mental health disorder? Seventy-five to 80% of children and youth in need of mental health services do not receive them.
Source - Children's Mental Health: What Every Policymaker Should Know. National Center
The first step to supporting children's mental health is awareness. All of the children in our community need the support of adults around them and we all have a role in supporting children's mental health. Together we can all work to promote the mental health of infants, children, and teens across the state. You can find resources for community outreach and education at the following link, http://www.wiaimh.org/. (Click on the 1st bullet: Children's Mental Health Awareness week is May 1-7th.) The resources include a children's mental health awareness flyer and a children's mental health awareness information packet.
TT Update
Tyler T is a special education student at MASH who had a heart attack on the bus. Here is an email from Mrs. Lybert on his situation:
Great News! I just spoke with Tyler T's mom Tracey. Tyler Tyler
Maintenance of Effort for Special Education
From Rachel Zellmer at DPI – I plan to attend the May 11 webinar for more information:
***Options for Maintaining IDEA Maintenance of Effort***
With the release of the Governor’s 2011-2013 biennial budget proposal, numerous questions about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA) maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement have been raised, including questions about the impact of reductions in staff benefit costs and layoffs. IDEA does not allow savings from reduced staff salaries/benefits as exceptions. For some LEAs, this may mean putting savings from reduced staff salaries and benefits back into special education, even though the actual level of special education services is not reduced by the benefit reduction.
We have developed an Excel scenario calculator for an LEA to use to determine if these changes will cause an LEA to fail IDEA maintenance of effort in 2011-2012. This calculator can be downloaded from: http://lists.dpi.wi.gov/t/82298/96920/252/0/
In addition to the allowed IDEA exceptions to lowering maintenance of effort, the Special Education Team has determined several options an LEA may wish to consider when planning for maintenance of effort compliance in future fiscal years. These options include:
1) Moving existing special education costs from the IDEA grant to local Fund 27 costs and using the freed-up federal funds for Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) or Title I schoolwide activities, both of which are general education activities.
2) Special education staff retiree costs currently coded to function 291 000, Fund 10 (if not in Fund 73) may be coded in Fund 27, Project 019.
3) Determining costs generated by non-special education staff in relation to IEP development. These documented costs can be coded to Fund 27, Project 019.
4) Providing general education instruction / interventions beyond the core curriculum to students with disabilities. These documented costs can be coded to Fund 27, Project 019.
Details on how to implement these options can be viewed at http://lists.dpi.wi.gov/t/82298/96920/253/0/
We are strongly encouraging all districts to have representation register and attend one of the scheduled “Planning for 2011-12 IDEA MOE” webinars that we have scheduled. The webinar will walk the attendee through using the scenario calculator, existing allowable exceptions, and then the additional budgeting options that are available to LEAs.
Wednesday, May 11, 10:00 - 11:15 am: http://lists.dpi.wi.gov/t/82298/96920/255/0/
Wednesday, May 25, 10:00 - 11:15 am: http://lists.dpi.wi.gov/t/82298/96920/256/0/
Afghanistan Update
There were recent attacks in Afghanistan that affected family members of residents in Medford Erin is our FACE teacher and close friend of our special education staff.
Special Education Positions
The school district has posted for three special education teaching positions – 2 at MASH and 1 at MAES; sign language interpreter position, and substitute speech language pathologist.
The two special education teaching positions at MASH allow us to continue offering our pullout classes and inclusion supports for students with disabilities that have been offered in the past.
The special education teaching position at MAES will allow us to provide a continuum of tiered service options for students with disabilities in pullout classes, inclusion support, tiered level of services and remedial instruction for students with academic, autism, behavioral, speech language, and communication needs. Alignment of special education staff will be tentatively laid out by May 6th. We have had special education staff spend more time working in regular education over past two years, decrease in paraprofessional support due to students transferring to other buildings, and multiple student transfers and new identification of students with disabilities in the past year. This certified special education staff member will allow us an opportunity to maintain existing paraprofessionals and their support at each grade level, allow IEP required and appropriate instructional time and services for students that receive special education, and continue to build towards RTI services which need to be in place by 2013 according to State Law.
The Sign Language Interpreter position will be full time in Kindergarten for the 11-12 school year.
The substitute speech language pathologist is for when our existing speech language pathologists are at a conference, sick, or on leave.
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