@ClaudnDaye wrote “the whole 504 thing I don’t know anything about…so anyone that wants to fill me in on what it is, how it’s used, etc., I’d be much obliged.”
Basically, once your child is in a public school (not sure if it applies to private schools) they have the right to have a 504 plan. This plan is part of the federal civil rights law and outlines the support and rights your child has. Once they are codified in a 504 plan the school is obligated to meet your child’s needs.
In our case, our school has a number of Type 1 children and the 504 is pretty standard, it gives our son the right to test and treat anywhere at anytime, gives him access to his supplies, and his phone, gives him the right to leave class at any time, use his phone anytime, and reschedule testing if he is out of range (has to show the meter reading to the teacher).
Every year this plan gets re-evaluated and if needs change it can be updated.
Every insulin dependent diabetic child in the US should have a 504 in my opinion.
@Chris, you and I should trade 504 plans and try to write a good standard model to post here. I have already done quite a bit of work to get there and I am not very far.
I would need to tune mine to take on more young child issues though. Mine is geared to middle and high school, not so much elementary school ( largely self-sufficient child). Or possibly we need two plans.
Agree, no way will ours work for young children, but I would be happy to send ours. I could even ask our district nurse if she would share a blank young child version.
Yes, that would be great! I won’t need it for a couple years if we go the public education route, but it would be great to have a good document to help guide us in our negotiations with the school!
I’ve already researched that Virginia basically allows full freedom for children with diabetes so that was a huge relief for me. I didn’t want my son to have to rely on any nurse or other (sometimes unqualified) school official.
You might be surprised, our district has two nurses who are really supportive, and for the younger kids, go to each school before lunch, help the kids test and dose appropriately to their plan. She heard we had been diagnosed over a break, and in the middle of the break called us and offered any and all support and told us her goal was to ensure we were comfortable so our son wouldn’t miss a day of school. She is an amazing school employee who I am very happy to interact with.
Super nice! Our district has also been super supportive. They have not given us ANY trouble, on the contrary. I feel bad for all the parents who do have trouble.
We don’t have a nurse all day though, only btw 10 and 3 I think, and it is shared btw elementary and middle schools. But they train staff in both schools for diabetes support (mostly glucagon, and picking low/high symptoms). We have been very pleased with the school and district.
We have about the same level of support. The nurses aren’t full time at any one school, but our whole school district is only a few square miles, so in reality they are within 5 minutes from any school. It helps that our junior high is centrally located, so they tend to hang out there.
It is two nurses for 3 elementary, 1 junior high and 1 high school.
No, we don’t have a 504 for him. He does have IEP, but we found a school district that has specialized classes and teachers who specialize in children with autism. And since last year, he spends nearly 3/4th’s of his day in Gen Ed with his peers. When he’s in the gen ed rooms, he has one of his special teachers sitting quietly in the back of the room in the off chance he begins acting up.
Its not so bad, if they have dealt with diabetics already it is pretty standard. Give me a shout if you want a copy of one. One of the other T1 parents, schooled us in 1/2 an hours and we got everything we asked for.