Out of sight, out of mind

Just found out my kid's seat was changed to sit away from the teachers. He no longer sits near the teacher as prescribed in his 504 plan for ADHD. Apparently the seat change happened like 3 months ago. And we all wonder why my kid doesn't seem to stay on task...

A little thing called advanced warning

My kid's 504 plan has this little thing called advanced warning when it comes to food in the classroom. All food has to be pre-approved or Richard is exempt. The school has to try to use non-allergen food products for classroom demonstrations (or better yet, not use food products aat all).

Then why are teachers distributing food products in his classroom that he is allergic to? What does the school say? "Ooops, we're sorry". From now on subsititues will be informed of your kids' deadly food allergies. Really? According to their own policies all substitute teachers are to be informed, and have epi-pen training. Guess that didn't happen either. Can you say 504 violation?

no eating on the bus

I've been asking the school to enforces its "no eating on the bus" policy for the upcoming field trip. The school is protesting.

Lets see, let's take 50 kids with peanut butter and other nut products and put them on a bus for 4 hours. Let's have them all eat on the bus. Then let's put a nut allergic child on that same bus and see what happens.

The liability and legal ramifications to a school who knowingly puts a child at risk, when something as simple as a "no eating on the bus" policy could be enforced, seems like a huge set of dice to roll.

Holding my Breath

Finally we heard from the principal! Here's the status on this week's top three problems:

1. The index cards being kept by a teacher are being destroyed. No longer will that teacher rely on self-reported medical information for students in the Home & Careers class. I think the principal told us on the phone, rather than email because if she put it in writing, it would document their role in the HIPAA violation, among other things.
2. Additionally, the principal told us the Valentine's day candy sales did include candy whose label read "may contain traces of peanuts and tree nuts". The principal told us the school would be purchasing alternative non-nut candy to distribute throughout the school.
3. Now onto the bake sale, there was no school oversight nor instruction given in regards to the ingredients of the bake sale items being brought in from home and sold throughout the school. Let's hope there aren't many nut-topped treats or peanut butter bars, etc. Since the sale occurs within the hour, there is nothing to do but hold our breathe that he comes home alive.
   

Battle Gear On

From the middle school website yesterday: "... Art Club will be having a Valentine's bake sale tomorrow and Friday during lunch periods."

A bake sale?!! A bake sale where kids bring in foods baked at home, probably laden with nuts (brownies with nuts, peanut butter cookies, etc). Are you kidding me?!!!

Doesn't this conflict with the school's proposed allergy policy "... Inform parents/guardians of students with severe allergies in advance of any school events where food will be served"?

I guess the school doesn't seem to think my kid may be at risk. Time to don some battle gear....

Hear No Evil

2 emails and 2 phone messages to the principal and still no answer about what candy products will be sold and distributed throughout the school facility tomorrow.

Separate but equal?

Why is is that teachers think classroom projects are appropriate when not all can participate? Or the class exercise if fine if one student is singled out because they have to use different, separate materials?

The Home & Careers classroom project is to read food labels, but not just the labels - she uses the whole package. The teacher wants to use what she already has but can't attest to them being safe for him to handle (such as her granola bar labels which have a ton of nuts in them]. Although we asked that labels being used would be safe for everyone, she thought it best he bring in his own. So here we go again, the "separate but equal" bullshit.