Food Allergy Families

The committee meeting I went to was really cool. They had all the heavy-hitters from the district there, including the superintendent, director of athletics, health director etc. And I was a parent rep and so was another parent and his daughter, who is going to be a senior in HS and has a severe, dust - type peanut allergy and has been in the district her whole life. It was really amazing to hear them talk about "raising" her in the district and having to analyze the ventilation systems in their schools to make sure she was safe ...really something.

So the health director wrote out the district's allergy policy as a draft and we all went over it page by page and made changes and raised new points, then they will forward it to the board etc. We were no more than advisors but it was a long and fascinating conversation and I think they learned a lot from hearing from families who live with it.

We managed to get a few things put in there that will make life a lot easier, like having schools post ingredient lists from any food that is served during after-school activities like carnivals (what's in that hot dog bun? I have crawled behind vendor tables and swiped packaging to find out - now I don't have to, they'll post it so we can all see it - that will be a huge benefit for us). And getting kids to wash or wipe their hands AFTER lunch as well as before - they did not know that antimicrobial gels do not get rid of allergens, so when the health director brought that up everyone freaked out because that's how they had been doing it after lunch - now they'll have kids wash or use wipes to clean their hands. And the staff training will be much more extensive and include people like trainers on athletic teams, bus drivers, steady substitute teachers, everyone they can think of who will come into contact with the kids. DD's principal asked if I wanted to attend the trainings to see what they were like and add what I wanted and I said sure so I'll be doing that too. I've got my big nose into all of it lol.

So it's not perfect but I think the policy is the absolute best we are going to get for now. Assuming it does not get completely butchered before it passes (which let's face it is likely). The training alone will be a huge benefit for everyone and the hand-washing too, so we'll see what we end up with. Overall I'm really impressed with this district and DD"s chances of surviving till graduation.