School Proposal Would Help
Diabetic Kids
By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 3, 2002
More than 200 Palm Beach County students are diabetic, and even more live
with hypoglycemia, yet the school district has no policy outlining their
rights to monitor their delicate blood sugar levels during school hours.
Despite the alarming growth in diabetic students across the United States,
local school administrators still rely on a broad district guideline for
student health. A mirror of state law, the district policy does not address
whether students can test their own sugar, nor does it say where monitoring
should take place when performed by school personnel.
School leaders are likely to get better guidance after today, when the
school board considers a proposal guaranteeing diabetic students the right
to monitor their sugar levels in class or in the campus health office.
"The number of students with diabetes has been increasing so much, we wanted
a uniform policy to give these kids a supportive environment,"
said Lashandra Span, a health services specialist with the district. "We want to
make sure students don't have their education disrupted just because they
need to medicate themselves."
The proposed policy would students in grades three and higher to monitor
their sugar, alone or with a trained adult's help, in the classroom. Younger
students would, in most cases, go to the campus health office. In all cases,
a trained adult -- usually the teacher or nurse -- would be around in case
something goes wrong. Principals would choose two staff members to be
trained as a backup to the nurse or child's teacher.
An estimated 800,000 Americans have Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. Last
year, nurses in district schools recorded 13,688 student visits (an average
of 407 each week) for diabetes and low blood sugar -- a 3 percent increase
from 1999-2000, when nurses recorded 13,281 visits.
This month, Yale University researchers reported that a quarter of obese
children could be at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, normally seen
in inactive, overweight adults.
Children with juvenile-onset diabetes are at risk for two potentially fatal
complications: diabetic ketoacidosis, in which blood sugar levels run too
high; and severe hypoglycemia, where the levels are too low. Both conditions
can result in coma or death.
Most diabetic youngsters know so much about their disease and their body's
reaction to it that they can check their blood sugar within a few minutes,
without a fuss. Yet some schools still require students to leave class and
go to the nurse's or principal's office, just to prick their finger and get
an instant reading.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights gets complaints
each year concerning the rights of diabetic students, including children
forbidden from pricking their fingers in the classroom, and youngsters who
aren't allowed to make up work for diabetes-related absences.
Just last month, Marilyn Benkelman was arguing with Cardinal Newman High
School officials who refused to let her 15-year-old son, Jefrey, carry his
life-saving kit of syringes, insulin pump supplies and glucose monitor.
"These people were just not educated," Benkelman said.
Only after she enlisted the help of state officials, former teachers and
doctors did Newman administrators let Jefrey carry his kit. Benkelman said a
policy like the district proposal would have served her son well.
The policy "puts everyone on notice that you cannot deny a child the right
to do this, and that they need to check their sugar without losing out on
class time," said Jeff Wagner, father of a diabetic student and chairman of
the diabetes subcommittee for the district's school health advisory
committee.
"This gives students the opportunity to lead their lives as normally as they
can," Wagner said. "Students can just go to the back of the class and check
their sugar. It takes like 45 seconds, and they don't miss the lesson."