November 5, 1999
Social Issues: School and Daycare
Question from Chicago, Illinois, USA:
If the parent of a pre-school diabetic child with type 1 requests to be included in the school lunch program, what are legal ramifications if the school does not honor that request? Also, if we did include the 4 year old child, what are our legal responsibilities and what could we do to protect ourselves?
I am a part-time school nurse in a Catholic grammar school and our lunch is provided for low-income families or those that can pay by the Archdiocese of Chicago by Food Service Providers. They do not have any special services for children with diabetes.
Answer:
It is my understanding that parochial schools do not have to follow the same rules. However, since you are a nurse, I would take your concerns along with school materials on this website and other information to the Archdiocese and see if you can get them to formulate some policies to help kids with diabetes.
SS
Additional comments from The Editor:
Kids with diabetes can generally work any food into their mealplan, as long as the nutritional information is known. You can help best by ensuring that you are able to provide nutritional information — especially carbohyrates — for each food served.
JSH
