New School Policy Bellevue WA

[Stinky10]

Oh my.  that was rough.   My husband was the only one who spoke in favor of the policy.   I didn't think that I could handle it and wasn't sure if I would get there in time.  I will use all of their impassioned against them to show just how much food is in our district. 

there were kids who spoke against it

teachers unable feed the poor - count beans - and on and multicultural on

I'm spent

the nurse told us to leave - she has our backs - 16 epi's used in the district last year

***  also I keep hearing that there is a federal mandate coming to remove food/snack from classrooms  ***

[Macabre]

Stinky I am sorry.

I don't even know how to begin so that people will get it. We come from a fundamentally difderent place than the food monsters. We have different value sets. I don't think it's easy to break through that.

[Macabre]

(((Hugs)))

[CMdeux]

It really is about living in a completely different world.

[Stinky10]

The Bellevue School District Board of Directors has retained Policy 3420 but suspended the recently updated Procedure 3420 Anaphylaxis Prevention and Response. The BSD will be using the last approved Procedure 3420 until revisions to Procedure 3420 is completed by February 2015.

[Stinky10]

Post from a board member:

Food in Schools and Anaphylaxis Prevention - an update on the recent procedural changes at BSD

Following a somewhat rushed rollout of a staff update to an operating procedure (3420 - Anaphylaxis Prevention and Response), we heard many voices from across our community. I learned many things including these:

(1) The recent procedural update was not adequately thought out (particularly with respect to unintended consequences) nor did it engage the community sufficiently to reflect the breadth of food related needs and concerns across our district.

(2) We have a growing number of students with life-threatening anaphylactic conditions, several of which have manifested (for a variety of reasons) during school time, and that should be addressed in a way to further reduce risks to those children in our schools.

At Tuesday night's (11/4) school board meeting, the board requested that the staff temporarily roll back the recent (October 2014) updates to the anaphylaxis prevention procedure and begin a process to more comprehensively consider appropriate changes to the procedure. The board requested that a date be set for the updates to be completed and that the update process engage the community. The staff accepted this request and will communicate next steps shortly. Updates to the procedure are expected to be made before February 14, 2015.

(Note that anaphylaxis prevention is only one reason for the regulation of food in schools. Any school-specific or classroom-specific rules about food are not impacted by this temporary procedural roll-back.)

Our community - parents, teachers, students, nurses, community members, etc. - has been exceptional in exposing a breadth of perspectives on this issue. It is my hope that subsequent procedural updates will take into account not only a balance in how we reduce risks to our students, but also a variety of approaches to reducing risk and intentional consideration of implications to both safety and inclusion.

I believe our staff will work with both the best interests of our students and the inputs of all of our community members in mind. I personally hope to see many of the issues discussed at our board meeting addressed in the next round of procedure updates. Some examples include:
* enhanced education, including a specific plan for student education (that may need to acknowledge age-based differences in students' capacities for awareness and action)
* availability of stock epi pens in our schools for approved use in emergencies
* additional clarity in some of our cafeteria food labels/ingredient info
* specific communication guidelines for schools and classrooms to share with families (including how to differentiate between life-threatening allergens and other allergens of concern in a given building or classroom)
* specific consideration of the breadth of reasonable uses of food in academic projects, educational experiences, and community building balanced with reduction of exposure of affected students to relevant allergens; clarity about the conditions under which any constraints in the use of food are applied

I am grateful to our community for its passion and courage in sharing ALL points of view. I hope this passionate and respectful dialogue continues as the procedural updates are developed.

[Macabre]

I could have missed it, but I think I didn't see inclusion refered to at all.

[becca]

Gah.  it hurts reading all of this, and I read on the Facebook page.  It is similar to what I experienced in my town about 8-9 years ago.  it was rough.    After a big brouhaha little changed.  Fewer birthdays, and a bit more control over party foods, but still cultural festivals with food, breakfast with Shakespeare, Pilgrim fest, etc...  Ugh. 

[Stinky10]

I could have missed it, but I think I didn't see inclusion refered to at all.

I haven't either.   I will draft a very comprehensive report to the board.   When I recover.

[CMdeux]

OUCH.       it really stings when the louder CHORUS of majority ignorance drowns out the very real issue at the bottom of policy changes like this.   

[Mfamom]

I read it on fb.  disheartening to say the least.  Upsetting that they have 16 allergic emergencies but still can't LEARN their lesson.  So sorry. 

[guess]

Post from a board member:

Food in Schools and Anaphylaxis Prevention - an update on the recent procedural changes at BSD

Following a somewhat rushed rollout of a staff update to an operating procedure (3420 - Anaphylaxis Prevention and Response), we heard many voices from across our community. I learned many things including these:

(1) The recent procedural update was not adequately thought out (particularly with respect to unintended consequences) nor did it engage the community sufficiently to reflect the breadth of food related needs and concerns across our district.

(2) We have a growing number of students with life-threatening anaphylactic conditions, several of which have manifested (for a variety of reasons) during school time, and that should be addressed in a way to further reduce risks to those children in our schools.

At Tuesday night's (11/4) school board meeting, the board requested that the staff temporarily roll back the recent (October 2014) updates to the anaphylaxis prevention procedure and begin a process to more comprehensively consider appropriate changes to the procedure. The board requested that a date be set for the updates to be completed and that the update process engage the community. The staff accepted this request and will communicate next steps shortly. Updates to the procedure are expected to be made before February 14, 2015.

(Note that anaphylaxis prevention is only one reason for the regulation of food in schools. Any school-specific or classroom-specific rules about food are not impacted by this temporary procedural roll-back.)

Our community - parents, teachers, students, nurses, community members, etc. - has been exceptional in exposing a breadth of perspectives on this issue. It is my hope that subsequent procedural updates will take into account not only a balance in how we reduce risks to our students, but also a variety of approaches to reducing risk and intentional consideration of implications to both safety and inclusion.

I believe our staff will work with both the best interests of our students and the inputs of all of our community members in mind. I personally hope to see many of the issues discussed at our board meeting addressed in the next round of procedure updates. Some examples include:
* enhanced education, including a specific plan for student education (that may need to acknowledge age-based differences in students' capacities for awareness and action)
* availability of stock epi pens in our schools for approved use in emergencies
* additional clarity in some of our cafeteria food labels/ingredient info
* specific communication guidelines for schools and classrooms to share with families (including how to differentiate between life-threatening allergens and other allergens of concern in a given building or classroom)
* specific consideration of the breadth of reasonable uses of food in academic projects, educational experiences, and community building balanced with reduction of exposure of affected students to relevant allergens; clarity about the conditions under which any constraints in the use of food are applied

I am grateful to our community for its passion and courage in sharing ALL points of view. I hope this passionate and respectful dialogue continues as the procedural updates are developed.

Problem: Conditions can't be placed on individual with disability for participation.  District policy for food free aside, they can't write conditions in order for students to get access.  They don't need to go food free everywhere at all times in order to not violate FAPE but this is essentially boxing in a disability without a hint of compliance almost like they're making up their own rules.

Stocking epinephrine isn't a mitigating measure.  Epinephrine is not a mitigating measure, nor would it be considered even if it was a mitigating measure. 

What exactly do they plan on 'educating' students with LTFA with?  These are patients of board certified allergists with specific medical knowledge of the condition.  Anaphylaxis prevention is strict avoidance.  It's all it's ever been there is no FDA approved treatment, cure or preventative medication.

Duty of care belongs to school.  No, they do not have to go food free at all times as a district policy but this may turn into an OCR issue with what they are doing in response trying to hedge in a disability and set conditions upon students based on that disability.   

[guess]

Stinky give it a week for it to shake out.  Take screen caps of what's been written by the board member.  If they're setting conditions on students with disability there may be some interested parties.

[CMdeux]

 

And "public opinion" isn't the way to go about finding an adequate means of compliance with the feds, either. 

In fact, if you look at ANY other means of accommodation-- replacing a stairway entry with a ramp, dedicating handicapped parking spaces, etc. it would be LUDICROUS to suggest that the public "weigh in" on their opinion about being "inconvenienced" by the accommodations.

[guess]

The answer also isn't push harder and grease your wheelchair to squeeze through the doorway, to extend the analogy.  Or listen harder if you're hard of hearing.  "We" need "community" (Except you people who would ruin our community building.  You people stand over there while we build a compassionate community.)



School policy can either meet or exceed ADA, duty of care, what it can't do is deny students with disability due process by unilaterally disregarding safeguards.  Nor can they offset their duty of care onto the disabled student. 

Preaching to the choir, yes.  The point is with that OCR regional office one would want to be VERY specific about a complaint, and one of the key components in the board's response is to violate safeguards for due process unilaterally for an entire disability through policy.  That is the sort of procedural safeguard violation that if filed on the same issue from the same district becomes a weighted complaint, and as an entire protected class might make a good candidate for hand off to DOJ.

Obligatory not a lawyer, not legal advice, need to put it in my sig.