Connecticut

[maeve]

It doesn't matter if they have better plans. The state is incorrect in stating that a 504 and an IHCP are one and the same. They are not. There are no legal protections with an IHCP. If the state is stating they're the same, they could be misleading parents who don't know better and thereby getting parents to in essence give up legal protections while letting the school off the hook.

[ajasfolks2]

Interview from 2008 with a Dr. Rosen, now retired, from CT about food allergy and schools:

http://www.cpbn.org/files/audio/Where%20We%20Live%2005-19-2008.mp3

I'm sure I listened to this when it first came out, but it's been awhile.  We likely even discussed it at our old boards.

Is this Dr. Rosen advising School boards and districts in CT these days?

[lakeswimr]

Dr. Rosen is retired.  He was not a supporter of 504s.  He was a very good allergist, though.  Being a medical expert doesn't make a person an expert on all things related to living with that illness.

I care if we have good plans here.  Yes, everyone with FAs should have a good 504.  Not everyone does.  Every child is CT with FAs HAS to have an IHCP.  They can also have a 504.  Thankfully FARE is now supporting 504s so I think/hope the word will get out more and more that FAs can qualify for 504s.  The 2008 Amendment to the ADA makes this very clear. 

It sounds like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  If you read the entire state guidelines they are a good thing overall.  State's that don't have such guidelines seem to tend to accommodate FA students less.

I'm not saying things are perfect.  I'm saying I think our state is one of the best in the country for FAs.  If you think there is a place that is better please let me know the state.  I'm seriously interested.  In CT things vary district to district but overall I think we have more and better accommodations than you find elsewhere.

[lakeswimr]

It doesn't matter if they have better plans.

It matters to me and it matters to my child.  His plan, which used to only be an IHCP, enabled him to go to school safely.  It kept allergens completely out of his classroom.  It made sure all people who watched him knew what to do if he had a reaction.  It was a very good thing for our family.  When it changed to a 504 didn't change how it was implemented at all.  It only changed his legal status, which was important to me.

But as for day to day-the contents of the plan were more important than whether we had the 504 or not.  The district does not treat IHCP accommodations less seriously than it does 504 accommodations.  I understand the importance of a 504 and I wanted one and I got one for my child.  A good plan certainly matters a lot. 

That doesn't mean a 504 doesn't also matter.

[lakeswimr]

Interview from 2008 with a Dr. Rosen, now retired, from CT about food allergy and schools:

http://www.cpbn.org/files/audio/Where%20We%20Live%2005-19-2008.mp3

I'm sure I listened to this when it first came out, but it's been awhile.  We likely even discussed it at our old boards.

Is this Dr. Rosen advising School boards and districts in CT these days?

My child had ana to contact ingestion and he insisted my child must have eaten something and lied to me about it.  My child doesn't lie and he had indeed had contact ingestion ana.  That's one thing in which Dr. Rosen did not believe.  He is very much of the mindset that everything must be proven by science.  Overall I think that's very important.   We should not be afraid of things that can't cause reactions.  However, contact ingestion can cause reactions.  It is rare but it can happen.  Dr. Rosen did tell me that if my child touched his allergen and then touched eyes, nose, or mouth he could have a reaction.  I do not think he felt it was a serious risk for most FA people, though.

You can hear in the audio a woman talking about getting the legislation passed--the first in the country that passed guidelines for managing FAs in schools.   I liked what she said about the fact that sample plans in the original guidelines should have been more detailed. 

I had not heard this audio before but so far listening to it nothing surprises me.

[lakeswimr]

Even FARE only recently started supporting 504s so I don't think it is surprising that the CT guidelines are not worded more strongly.  I'm glad they have moved in the right direction from the first to the 2nd version.

[ajasfolks2]

Having a better plan and having a legally accountable plan are definitely 2 different things.   

Of course, my mind is right back to our (this group of members) original conversations about how NOT having a 504 does everybody a disservice (GailW, thank you once more!).

But beyond disservice, it does something much more serious:

it discriminates based on disability and allows for such from any/all players.

[ajasfolks2]

Having experienced (first hand) the state of 504s for LTFA in 4 states and 7 school districts over 12 years, I'm not impressed by many states overall. 

It all comes down to local, typically.

But CT is not a huge state geographically or student population wise.  It seems to me there would be better overall consistency there than in say, Virginia, which is much larger both in area and population (and diversity of rural vs urban and cultures).

lakeswimr, know that this is not about you, so please don't take this personally.  I'm working on something behind the scenes and I knew we had more than just a couple members over the years from CT as well as having firsthand experience there . . . recall that once upon a time one of the people who was on the team developing those first CT allergy guidelines was someone with whom many of us had interaction over number of years (Rhonda R.S.).

Have worked hard here to not name districts and identify with members, so to protect privacy of members.

 
~ ~ ~

So, doing quick search as to names / number of school districts in CT, it's a surprise that there are so many for such a small state (if greatschools can be trusted as resource):

http://www.greatschools.org/schools/districts/Connecticut/CT/

That's a whole lot of districts and a whole lot of potential for interpreting policy and managing LTFA a whole lot of different ways.  Wow.

~ ~ ~

(Slightly wry humor -- just wanted to be sure I'm not being accused of putting CT on par with lowly Missouri so far as LTFA management and 504s . . .    )

[ajasfolks2]

I did see some other concerning or confusing passages in that CT Food Allergy Guidelines last night, but got too tired to copy/paste and comment.  Just noting that here as a reminder to myself to get back on that over weekend when I have more time.

ETA -- here is also the SPED manual for CT.  Might be helpful in some way:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/DEPS/Special/Parents_Guide_SE.pdf

And the latest state SPED regulations for CT:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/rrdata/pr/2012REG2012-046A-RC.PDF


Not throwing baby out with bath water here . . . trying to make things better and if we improve 1 state, we'll have better chance of improving another.

Heck, there are only 50 states.   

[hedgehog]

CT is not a huge state geographically or student population wise.

As you noted later in that same post, yes there are a lot of districts.  For the most part, every town has it's own.  Some exceptions.  For example, in my town, we have our own  K-6 district, as do our neighboring towns, but we share a HS/MS district with those neighbors. 

Add in the fact that CT is really like two different states.  It is basically the Yankees/ Red Sox divide.  That is, Fairfield County, and parts of New Haven County are really suburbs of NYC. Both geographically and culturally.  Most of the rest of the state is truly part of New England, again both geographically and culturally.  In some ways, the distinctions are minor, in others, huge. 

So for a small state, CT is way more complicated than an outsider would think.

[maeve]

Litchfield County is kind of a mix of the two Connecticuts.  Though having lived in both CT and now in VA. Ajas is right in that there is a much greater variation in types of communities in VA than there is in CT. Certainly, CT is not monolithic but there is still a high degree of commonalities among communities.


The coal country of southwest Virginia is significantly different than the high tech Northern Virginia suburbs. There is not the same degree of disparity in CT. Even within school districts there's huge discrepancies, such as the district Ajas and I both live in. My daughter's MS has 1,640 students in a school built to hold 1,239 students. She has never attended a school with fewer than 1,000 students. However, just south of us in the same county there is a middle school that is under capacity (and yet it's having an addition built on it so that it is appropriately sized for the HS it feeds) and there are elementary schools with fewer than 100 students. Even demographics varies widely in a 4 to 5 mile radius. DD's MS and the HS she will attend is majority minority; the number of Asian (particularly south Asian) students is equivalent to or exceeds the number of white students. However, in the ES/MS/HS cluster that adjoins our cluster, it is predominantly white. The high schools in those two clusters are only 2.5 miles apart. The eastern part of our county is predominantly Hispanic and lower income Hispanic. The western part of the county is made up of farms and huge landed estates (it's VA horse country). The issues facing the eastern part of the county (language issues, need for reduced lunch) are different than the middle of the county (overcrowded schools) and are different than the west (under enrollment of small schools).


I can tell you even within the cluster that food allergy issues/504 are handled differently. The MS has been pretty proactive, but in no way perfect. As with anything in food allergies, it really is dependent on the staff that you deal with. I have another friend in the same district whose daughter had a reaction during a school party. She had to go to the ER. And yet, nothing has changed in the district. There was still food at field day and an ice cream social sponsored by the PTO today.


lakeswimr, I think you missed my point. Of course, it's important to your family that the IHCP is great and well implemented. It is not relevant in the grand scheme of things if CT misleads parents into thinking that an IHCP affords the same legal rights. It doesn't. Also, what you describe in terms of the IHCP is not so much how good the plan is itself but how well it is implemented. I have a good 504 but there still have been issues with things falling through the cracks. I, however, could make a legal stink if I wanted to that I would not be able to make if I only had an IHCP.

[ajasfolks2]

hedge & maeve -- than you for that intel . . . helps me a lot as I try to understand and get to the root of some of the issues . . . 

[my3guys]

Recent article on one CT town...

http://www.fairfield-sun.com/24027/parents-seek-safe-food-handling-instructions/

The non-compliance is blood boiling.

[hedgehog]

 Does not surprise me that that is an issue in that part of the state.  Although I would think it more likely in some of Fairfield's neighbors.  But that part if the state has an over abundance of people who are so incredibly self-centered and cannot even fathom that they are not entitled to everything they want.  Not saying everyone in that area is like that, just that they have more than their share and it seems to be part of the culture.  Many of. DD's uni classmates are from that area.  And they are the on she can't stand stand due to that very attitude. 

BTW, I was born in that area, grew up not far from there, but had connections there my whole childhood through college.  I am familiar, but it does seem to have gotten worse since then.

[lakeswimr]

I'm surprised the State didn't catch them yet as not having complied and come out with a district policy. My son's district tried to get away with not making a new district plan and got forced to do so by the state.  Why wasn't that district also forced to do so?