[moveinjuly]

Hello
Appreciate if any one can let me know, if there is a Nurse/Health Technician at each public school (Elementary, Middle , High School) in OKemos/EL area. How are the food allergies at school handled?

Thanks

[teachbeach]

Check the district's websites. They usually answer these types of questions. You can also call the person in charge of pupil personnel services (usually under the administration/staff directory listing) and check on this. Okemos is one school district and East Lansing is a separate district, each with their own set of administrators and schools. Be sure to check with both.

http://www.elps.k12.mi.us/

Okemos Public Schools - Home

[caspper69]

Originally Posted by moveinjuly

Hello
Appreciate if any one can let me know, if there is a Nurse/Health Technician at each public school (Elementary, Middle , High School) in OKemos/EL area. How are the food allergies at school handled?

Thanks

In East Lansing, district policy is like so (for food allergies, not sure about Nurse/Health Technician but I assume each school has one, or at least one available quickly):

1) In the classroom (i.e. snacks) nothing can contain nut products or products that are manufactured in the same facility as nuts.

2) In the lunchroom, you are allowed to have nut products if you bring them from home, but the school will never, ever serve anything that has the potential for allergy (except eggs).

3) There is a nut-free table in the lunchroom for children with food allergies.

4) If the allergies are severe, children are permitted to eat outside the lunchroom in an isolated area. At our elementary there are only 2-3 kids with allergies this severe.

5) Nothing is served with pork. All pork-like products (think bacon, hot dogs, etc) are either all beef, or are turkey.

6) There are always 2 food lines per day with differing choices, and a "line 3" which is usually the same and vegetarian: a salad bar, loose fresh veggies, cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, etc.

7) I believe you can leave an epi-pen or other allergy medication with the school nurse as long as you have a doctor's note and a consent form on file in case anything goes wrong and there's an emergency.

As a disclaimer, my experience is only as an elementary parent, so middle and high school are likely to be very different and more a la carte, instead relying on your children to make the best choices for their individual diet.

[moveinjuly]

Thank You!!

After teachbeach's reply, I called up the Okemos school district and spoke, they work it on case to case basis. And they dont have a nurse in each school. So its the staff who has to handle the severity and use the epipen, which I am not comfortable with.

Need to call up EL school district and check with them too.