School Nurses
Always Care for
Kids in School (SNACKS)
* See below *
Our goal is to create a state statute that has a standardized set of guidelines for the care and the rights of diabetic children in the public school system.
Right now, there are no standardized guidelines in practice. Guidelines are left up to the interpretation of the staff and vary from school to school. If a parent doesn't know that his/her diabetic child has certain rights in school, they will simply go along with whatever their school's "policy" is. There is no "policy". This can be very dangerous for the child.
Example: If the diabetic child feels like her glucose level is dropping, and she is not allowed to leave the classroom to tend to herself, (until after a class is over), the consequence can be fatal. The school staff MUST be educated to know these possible consequences. If this must start at the county level, than that's where it will have to start. We want this to eventually go into affect nationally.
Click here for : Newspaper Articles Below
Advice
WHEN YOUR DOCTOR IS WRITING THE CARE
PLAN FOR YOUR DIABETIC CHILD IN SCHOOL, AND HE SPECIFIES "GLUCAGON EMERGENCY
KIT," THE DOCTOR SHOULD WRITE IT LIKE THIS:
"GLUCAGON EMERGENCY KIT (EMERGENCY INJECTABLE MEDICATION)"
BY STATING "EMERGENCY INJECTABLE MEDICATION," THE DOCTOR, BEING THE MEDICAL
PROFESSIONAL, IS NOT ALLOWING A SCHOOL DISTRICT TO USE THEIR OWN INTERPRETATION OF
"EMERGENCY INJECTABLE MEDICATION," ALREADY FOUND IN THE STATE STATUTES.
THEREFOR, GLUCAGON WOULD THEN BE COVERED UNDER STATE STATUTE 232.465.
- Accomplishments
1. In March 1999, we went to Washington, D.C. to meet with
our
congressman to discuss with him, the problems in the schools for children with
diabetes. He wrote a letter to the school board stating that "it is a matter of
utmost importance which should be addressed by the school board."
2. We are members of Palm Beach County's Standing 504 Committee, which writes and updates policies for children under Section 504.
3. We are members of our county's School Health Advisory Council, which addresses concerns with children's health in school.
4. Crusaded for supplying all of Palm Beach County's schools with educational material informing teachers about the daily routines of children with Diabetes. *see article below
WE SPONSORED NIKKI'S SOCCER TEAM THIS YEAR. WE USED THE "JDF WALK FOR A CURE 2001" SLOGAN ( WITH THE JDF'S PERMISSION, OF COURSE). GBYSA STANDS FOR GREATER BOCA YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION.
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THE SUN SENTINEL
OCTOBER 5, 2001Five years ago, Nikki Wagner was taking a test for her fourth grade class. School officials refused to let the eight year old eat a snack even though she was diabetic.
“They told me in the office that they wouldn’t let me eat in there,” said Nikki, who’s now 13. “Finally, they let me have my snack and then they sent me to lunch.”
Overfed, Nikki went into a diabetic coma when she got home from school. The incident galvanized her father Jeff Wagner, 38.
“From that day forward, we said that’s not going to happen to our kid or any other kid,” said Wagner, a Boca Raton resident who’s now active on the school health advisory council.
Wagner recently formed SNACKS - School Nurses Always Care for Kids at School. He formed the group after he found out during conversations with school nurses that they often have to pay for snacks out of their own pocket because not every school provides snacks for their diabetic students. Some parents forget them; others cannot afford them.
According to Winnie Whidden who supervises all 19 Boca Raton school nurses, different schools had different policies.
“It was very inconsistent,” Whidden said, adding that nearly 60 kids in the Boca Raton schools have diabetes. “We were getting them the majority of the time, but it depended on the individual school and how well the principal and cafeteria understood the needs of diabetes kids.”
But that wasn’t good enough for Wagner. “When I heard that, I started writing to Nabisco and Keebler,” said Wagner who’s also begun soliciting help from local companies.
The response has been so positive that the Wagners can no longer get into the small home office in the back of their house. It’s piled with boxes of snacks.
“The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department just gave us peanut butter, jelly and crackers. They got it donated from Publix,” said his wife Debbi Wagner, 38. “All this stuff is taking up my whole back room.”
Not that Debbi Wagner is complaining. The Wagners have been distributing snacks that Nabisco has been sending them the last six months. They’re now expanding their efforts.
“We just got an email from a school in Jupiter to get the snacks so we’ll get snacks to whoever needs them in Palm Beach County,” she said. “We’ve just got to take it and run with it.”
Anne Hedges, administrator for the school health program, gives the Wagners a lot of credit for their work on behalf of the county’s kids. “They certainly have had a positive impact in assisting children in getting snacks,” Hedges said. “There are more and more children becoming diabetic because of obesity. So we have more issues of insulin injections and snacks.”
When asked if the school district should rely on business donations to provide these snacks, Hedges pointed out the enormity of the school population (currently about 160,000 youngsters).
“It’s a big job taking care of so many children,” she said. “In terms of businesses, it’s not their job, but any time the community wants to step in and provide additional support we welcome it.”
Julie Vandesteeg, the school nurse at Eagles Landing where Nikki Wagner goes to school, is grateful for the assistance.
‘I know it’s a great help because a lot of times the nurses were buying snacks themselves with their own money,” said Vandesteeg.
There is no one national standard for providing snacks in schools.
"The level of knowledge about diabetes in schools is inconsistent and so parents of children with diabetes often have to become educators," said Anne Daly, registered dietician and certified diabetes educator with the American Diabetes Association. "No one should assume that teachers were taught about diabetes."
The American Diabetes Association has developed a position statement for educators and families outlining the responsibiliites of parents versus schools or day care provider. However, nothing in that statement says the school should provide snacks although schools must allow the children permission to have them.
Nikki is especially grateful her parents have become such ardent activists.
“I’m happy that they help other kids,” said the vivacious student. “I
wouldn’t want them to go through the same thing that I did.”
If you want more information on the SNACKS program, visit the website www.type1info.com
TIPS FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH DIABETES:
Know your rights (learn about the legislation available to help your child succeed in school. Two important laws are IDEA '97 and Section 504. Free information can be obtained from the Florida Department of Education Clearinghouse.
-If you think your child is having a problem, say so early. Notify your
school nurse.
-Don't assume that staff is familiar with diabetes. Work with your school nurse to correct misconceptions.
-Keep good records of treatment.
-Know that your school nurse is part of the team to assist with your child's individual health.
-Build a long-term relationship with your school nurse and school team.
Schools Receive Snacks to Help Diabetic Students
By Shannon Colavecchio, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 27, 2001
When a diabetic youngster's sugar drops and the shakes come, a Lifesaver or a Fig Newton could be the difference between a brief, dizzying scare and a long, terrifying coma.
Debbi Wagner knows because her 13-year-old daughter Nikki went into a seizure four years ago, after she didn't eat her daily snack while at school. Nikki's blood sugar plummeted to 18, then shot up to 500 after she ate lunch. Normal blood-sugar levels hover between 80 and 100.
Nikki, a student at Eagles Landing Middle, recovered and has been living with diabetes for five years.
But the Wagners never forgot the seizure, and in the years since have become vocal advocates for local diabetic students, working to improve schools' ability to treat the condition.
Today, Wagner and her husband Jeff have struck a deal with a subsidiary of snack-food giant Nabisco to help ensure that all Palm Beach County students with diabetes get animal crackers or Nutter Butters to help them maintain a healthy blood sugar.
"We don't want any child to have an emergency situation like ours did," said Debbi Wagner. "If a child needs something, they should have it. And school nurses shouldn't have to spend their own money to make sure kids have it."
So far, the Wagners have delivered several boxes of snacks to clinics at Olympic Heights High, Verde Elementary, Boca Elementary, J.C. Mitchell Elementary and Omni Middle -- all Boca Raton schools. A Nabisco subsidiary has supplied most of the food for free, but some was bought in recent months with a $25 donation from BJ's Wholesale and with money from the Wagners.
Their goal is to get more local business support, and to deliver snacks to every school nurse who needs them, either because the cafeteria doesn't cover the need or because parents aren't sending their diabetic children to school with a supply of sugar-raising food.
The Wagners also want the snacks to be available for non-diabetic students who go to the school nurse feeling lightheaded and queasy, their blood sugar too low because they never ate breakfast, and maybe even missed dinner the
night before.
"Once we get a feel for how many snacks will be needed and how often, we'll get the snacks from Nabisco and start handing them out," said Jeff Wagner, a member of the county's school health advisory council. "We just need to hear from the schools, and we'll be there."
School nurse Roberta Hammond's clinic at Omni Middle is stocked with Mini Oreos, animal crackers, hard candy and Snackwell's devil's food cookies.
Just last week Hammond used Fig Newtons to stabilize a boy's low blood sugar level of 38. Her clinic has a ready supply of glucose tablets and sugar-rich juice, but Hammond said she also uses the snacks because they raise sugar faster -- and because they're a lot more enjoyable for a youngster to eat than a pill.
Last year Hammond paid for most of these snacks herself, spending about $25 a month because she didn't want to keep pestering the cafeteria staff for more oranges and juice. Buying food with Omni's approximately $200 clinic budget wasn't an option, Hammond said, because that money had to cover other supplies, such as cleaning tools and spare clothing for sick students.
"My principal is wonderful, and so are the cafeteria staff, but I just thought, 'I cannot keep asking them for these snacks," Hammond recalled.
"So I started kicking in my own money. Then the Wagners came along with this huge box of peanut butter crackers, and told me to put my money away. It was such a relief."
Local health care leaders say the Wagners' initiative couldn't be more timely, as cases of diabetes rise among youth nationwide -- often brought on by obesity and lack of exercise -- and budgets tighten for education and health care.
"There is no real budget for snacks in clinics, so until now it's been pretty much up to the nurses to find a way to get this themselves," said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the county health department, which administers the school nursing program.
In Palm Beach County last year, the health department recorded 286 public school students as having diabetes, including 113 high school students, 80 middle school students and 93 elementary school students. During the 1999-2000 year, school nurses recorded 13,281 visits for diabetes and low blood sugar, according to the most recent figures from the county's Health Care District.
Winnie Whidden, south county school health supervisor for the Health Care District, said the Wagners are helping school nurses overcome the reality that school policies for diabetic snacks are inconsistent. Whidden estimates that 90 percent of the county's school cafeterias provide food of some sort for diabetic students, "but sometimes it was so stale you couldn't eat it, or the cafeteria management expressed resistance."
"Some principals are so wonderful, and others say it's not their responsibility," said Whidden, who supervises the Boca Raton Community Hospital nurses working in the Boca area's 18 public schools. "Then some parents say, 'I forgot to bring the snacks.' Others say they can't afford them. But the fact is, we need a regular flow of snacks, with no holdup or waiting. The Wagners are filling in that need."
shannon_colavecchio@pbpost.com
Boca News
- November 25, 2000
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WOMAN DONATES BOOK ON DIABETES TO SCHOOL
Teachers need to know what children go through, she says
Boca Raton mother, Debbi Wagner is determined to build a database of information about diabetes for teachers and nurses in the Palm Beach County School District
Even if she has to do it one book at a time.
Recently, Wagner and her husband, Jeff, donated 150 copies of "Rufus Comes Home" to the school district. The book by Kim Gosselin is about a young boy and his teddy bear, Rufus, Learning to live with diabetes. It is a companion book to "Taking Diabetes To School," which Wagner donated to every Palm Beach County school last year.
"I want it to be a resource for teachers to understand children with diabetes from a child's perspective, said Debbi Wagner, who partnered with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Bayer Corporation to donate the books. "Teachers can look up the book when they know they are getting a student with diabetes and familiarize themselves with what that child goes through."
The Wagner's daughter, Nikki, has Type 1, juvenile diabetes and is a seventh-grader at Eagles Landing Middle School in west Boca Raton. Several years ago, Nikki suffered health problems when classroom rules kept her from managing her diabetes in school.
Wagner is determined to save other parents and children from similar challenges.
"Teachers need to understand the importance of the timing of drinks and snacks to a diabetic child. My daughter's life was put in danger, so I decided to help. It starts with educating the educators," said Wagner.
School district Chief Academic Officer Art Johnson accepted the books and said he would notify the principals that they were coming. Last year, most copies of "Taking Diabetes To School ended up in school clinics rather than libraries, said Cheryl Alligood, associate superintendent in charge of curriculum and instruction.
Alligood added that the school district personnel might develop a training course on diabetes for teachers.
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November 24, 2000
Fort Lauderdale Sun SentinelMOM HELPS EDUCATE TEACHERS ABOUT DIABETES
BY LOIS K. SOLOMON, EDUCATION WRITER
When her daughter had a seizure at school because no one knew how to treat her her diabetes, Debbi Wagner knew it was time to educate the educators.
The incident three years ago opened a new era in her West Boca Raton family's life: visiting their congressman's office in Washington, D.C., joining several Palm Beach County School District health committees; creating a diabetes Web site (www.type1info.com) and lobbying schools for parents who have had similar troubles.
With Corporate help, the family recently donated books to 150 school nurses' office in Palm Beach County. The book, Rufus Comes Home, details what it is like for a child to have diabetes. It was the family's second book donation for school nurses, who the Wagners hope will encourage teachers to read the books so they can better accommodate their diabetic students.
"My intention is to get a whole bunch of books," Wagner said. "I've found that educators don't know a lot about diabetes."
In juvenile diabetes, the child's pancreas produces little or no insulin, which is needed to regulate blood sugar. Symptoms include excessive thirst, extreme hunger, sudden weight loss, excessive urination and drowsiness or exhaustion.
"When you go out and do something, you have to watch your blood sugar," said NIkki Wagner12, a seventh-grader at Eagles Landing Middle School west of Boca Raton.
"If I'm feeling low at school, I drink a Gatorade or have a little piece of candy. I test my blood sugar in the school clinic now, but when I was in elementary school, my teacher explained to the class what I was doing."
Children with diabetes need to take daily injections of insulin. Many need to eat regularly to help keep their blood sugar stable.
Nikki was a fourth grader at Hammock Pointe Elementary School, west of Boca Raton three years ago when she was taking a state exam and her teacher did not allow her to have her regular midmorning snack. Her blood sugar dropped so low the school called her mother, who said the staff must allow her to eat.
The school ultimately fed her, but then sent her to lunch. Nikki needs to wait two hours between meals. Her blood sugar level skyrocketed, and she had a seizure.
Last year, Nikki's vision started to blur during a class at Eagles Landing. Her teacher let a friend in the class help her set up her blood-sugar testing equipment, and the friend gave her part of her lunch. In retrospect, her mother wishes the school nurse had been called in.
This year Wagner had Nikki's teachers trained in what to do when a child's blood sugar gets low.
Four students at Eagles Landing have been diagnosed with diabetes. More than 1 million American children have the disease.
The Wagners want the state Legislature to approve a new law that sets guidelines for the care of diabetic children in public schools.
"Educators aren't making mistakes on purpose," Wagner said. "They just don't have the knowledge."
Boca Raton News
BOCA MOM PUSHING BOOK ON DIABETES
By: Susanna Laurenti
Staff Writer
When Debbi Wagner's daughter, Nikki, had a diabetic seizure in school after not being allowed to eat her snack on schedule, Wagner was understandably upset. But instead of blaming the school staff, Wagner, of Boca Raton, Florida decided to educate Nikki's teachers and classmates about her disease.
"I realized we needed to teach the teachers," said Wagner. "Many people just didn't know what was involved with living with diabetes."
Her quest for educational materials took her to the West Palm Beach office of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation where she discovered "Taking Diabetes to School," a book by Kim Gosselin, a Missouri mom of a diabetic child. "The book just said it all, and in a way children could understand," said Wagner of the ten page, glossy-cover book that told how Jayson, a boy with diabetes, got through the school day.
Wagner was so impressed with "Taking Diabetes to School," that she wanted to put one in each of Palm Beach County's 138 school libraries. She sought corporate help, and found it in Bayer Corporation, a Jupiter pharmaceutical company. The company purchased 300 of the $5 books and, Wednesday, Wagner donated the volumes to the school district.
"We were happy to receive the books because they do provide valuable information to students, teachers. and parents about a disease that, unfortunately, effects an increasing number of our students, said District Spokesperson Nat Harrington. "Hopefully, it will help the district to provide any special services those students might need."
Wagner agreed, saying she hoped the presence of "Taking Diabetes to School" in school libraries would prevent other children from going through what Nikki experienced. In addition to the seizure, Nikki's blood sugar levels reached dangerous extremes on several occasions when special events or strenuous activities at school interfered with her normal routine of snacks and insulin injections.
Many teachers and school staff don't realize the importance of letting diabetic children eat and go to the bathroom when the need to, say Wagner. Often, diabetics depend on precisely-timed midday snacks to maintain adequate blood sugar levels. Delaying that snack, even by a few minutes, could result in dangerous fluctuations, she added.
"Now, when teachers get a student with Diabetes they can research it and make themselves aware of what diabetics go through," said Wagner. Many people think it is just a matter of controlling sugar, but actually the diabetic diet is a balance of sugar and insulin. It can be complicated."