When parents protested this past March claiming that a Florida student needed to be home-schooled due to her intrusive peanut allergy, this question resurfaced: Should U.S. schools be "Nut Free?"
As the parent of an eight-year-old with multiple anaphylactic allergies, I wonder how much the label of "Nut-Free" school can secure the safety of any nut-allergic allergic child. I don't question whether the awareness and effort taken when enforcing such a policy would be very helpful. It would. However, parents like myself have many other crucial allergy-safety practices. For example, we should also assess our child's emergency medication procedures, the availability of the school nurse, the distribution of individual and general allergy information, and yes, we even need to consider classroom hygiene (depending on the age of the children).
The label "Nut-Free" school leaves unanswered questions. What if a food is brought to school that does contain nuts? Is it confiscated? Does it include all nuts and nut oils? Does it include foods that are labeled as potentially cross-contaminate with nuts? What about bake sales or special occasions when outside food is brought into the school?
Currently, food allergic children are protected by the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Management Act, which was signed into law January 4, 2011. Or are they?
FAAMA:
1) Requires the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and make available to schools a voluntary policy to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools.
2) Provide for school-based food allergy management incentive grants to support implementation of food allergy management guidelines in public schools.
What does that really mean? It means that hopefully U.S. schools will make use of the "voluntary national guidance materials" pertaining to food allergies and at the very least address how they plan to address food allergies. Some schools may take this charge more seriously than others by learning cost-free methods of ensuring an allergic child's safety -- for example, administrators can train teachers to recognize the symptoms of a reaction or ensure that medical information is effectively distributed to their staff. However, schools may choose to retain a plan that is relatively ineffective in minimizing the risk of an allergic reaction. In most states, schools are facing budget cuts, which can increase class sizes and decrease school nurse's office hours. That isn't a good ratio for allergic children should they have an unexpected reaction.
But there are many ways that parents can advocate for their food allergic child within the varied context of FAAMA:
Parents can advocate for a safe environment for their children by 
communicating with the school. They can approach schools in the spring before the next school year begins, introduce themselves and schedule meetings with the principal, teachers and school nurse.
Parents can bring their own resources for teaching allergy-safe school practices. These resources can be downloaded from the FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Website) website for parent-initiated meetings and presentations on food allergies.
 

Parents can put a 504 plan in place. 
The Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, states that "A student with a disability like food allergies can obtain a 504 plan to keep the child included and have equal access to Free & Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment the same as their non-disabled peers."
 Any school, public or private, that receives federal funding, (i.e., a lunch or milk program) is subject to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. And, for private schools not covered by 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act provides similar protections. (Religious private schools are exempt.)
 

Parents can also file an IHP -- Individual Health Plan -- to outline emergency procedures should their child have a reaction.
There is a balance at play when dealing with food allergy safety in school. On one side, there is the weighty questions of "what if?" What if a child has an allergic reaction, despite best preventive efforts? And on the other side, there is a heavy pile of nuts -- how much should schools tip that scale? In the New York area, many public schools offer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as the alternative to the daily hot lunch. Is it possible for a peanut anaphylactic child to stay safe (or even comfortable) in a cafeteria filled with children eating peanut butter? I don't think so.
On the other hand, if a school is "Nut-Free," but a substitute teacher unknowingly hands her class miniature nut-contaminated chocolates, that same allergic child may need a flawless execution of their emergency procedures far more than the inevitable fallibility of that label. It's time for local school districts to address the whole issue of food allergy safety in schools, without parsing out controversial media sound bites. It's time to stop endangering the lives of our school children.



Follow Susan Weissman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/susanweissman
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My doctor sat me down right after I recovered from my first reaction and said I was ultimately responsible for my life. Parents wouldn't always be around to protect me. I couldn't ever go without reading a label, and if I wasn't sure or there was no label, it wasn't worth eating the food. I had to make sure things I touched were clean and even talk back to adults who didn't get it if necessary. I got through all of grade school w/o using my epi-pen.
That said, I think my allergy, while anaphylactic, was a teeny bit milder than some of the kids today. I've had an inhaled reaction but it was at a bakery making a big batch of peanut cookies, not a school where a few peanut foods are present. I don't know if nut-free policies can cover all such situations anyway. IMO, policies are great but even tiny kids must be educated to be vigilant. I was.
http://www.foodallergygourmet.com/Food%20Allergy/USDA%20Child%20Nutrition.htm
Though it may feel asympethetic, I feel these allergy paranoia of some minuscule %age of people are very selfish in regulating the majority of children and restricting their livelihood and healthy food.
YES, it is almost selfish to expect that the whole public school system will change just for 0.01% of the population.
If your child has cancer, diabetes, autism, learning disorder, behavior disorder, cleft palate, blind, deaf, heart disease, obese, or too skinny, etc.. Keep them at home. We don't want them causing an inconvenience on the normal children or their parents. Especially when it comes having to give up a peanut butter sandwich that the "normal" children MUST have for those 180 meals out of 1095 in a year or they will starve to death.
Teaching "normal" children to be compassionate and understanding of their friends' limitations is not something a "normal" parent would want to take the time to do. Can you imagine having to pick up the jar of sunbutter at the store instead of peanut butter!? What an inconvenience! I mean...it sits 2 inches from the regular peanut butter, and we would have to reach our arm an extra inch to pick it up instead of the regular "Normal" stuff.
Well said 6p023E23! I bet you are so glad your family is "normal" and you don't have to worry about anything ever happening that could cause anyone to become "abnormal".
FYI...serious food allergies are not something that everyone is born with. They can develop them as they age. 25% off food related reactions that happen at school, are to children with no previously known allergies.
if your child is deficient, abnormal and that is the way nature made it and nature make up statistics as the part of evolution. DEAL WITH IT. and YES your child is YOUR responsibility.
But no. Schools should not be nut-free. I think the classroom the kid is in should be nutfree for grade schoolers but a whole school? No, Get with the school nurse to work up a plan. Make sure all the adults at the school are on the same page in case there's an emergency. Educate your child about how to ask and what to eat.
My child is a vegetarian. Peanut butter, peanut bars, nuts, and other nut butters are a large part of her protein/fat intake almost every day. She has the right to take a pb&j to her school.
She has a friend who has a very serious allergy to strawberries. When both girls were in 4th grade, my daughter became hyper vigilant and sensitive to the other child's problems. Now, when we go shopping, she's particularly careful to segregate the strawberries we buy from all our other foods. All the girls' other friends do this as well out of respect for and consideration of the child's problem.
It is unrealistic and unfair to make an ENTIRE SCHOOL a nut-free zone for the sake of a few children.
I trust that was her choice?
Children with food allergies are protected under Americans with disabilites Act. They are entitled to a public education as much as any other child is. They are also entitled to that education without fearing for their life. For some children, a simple peanut can pose as much risk to that child as a loaded gun. That is a simple fact that is hard to imagine that for someone who has never been faced with this type of health problem.
Schools are required BY LAW to keep the school as safe as possible for all kids who attend there. It means putting up ramps for children in wheelchairs, hiring aides, and creating special classrooms for children with severe disabilities. It means having a defibrillator on the bus and in the nurses office in case someone would suffer cardiac arrest. No one complains about these accommodations.
Children with food allergies are only restricted when it comes to what can be served in the cafeteria. A half hour time frame out of a 24 hour day.
Shame on YOU for your insensitivity.
NOTE: Before anyone makes claims that peanuts elicit allergic reactions through airborne exposure know that this is a MYTH that has never been replicated in any scientific study. Reactions may occur, but they are phycological in nature.
Also true, is that it is not common for allergic people to be so exquisitely sensitive that airborne particles can cause a reaction. But airborne anaphylaxis is real, it does happen, and it is acknowledged by world-renowned allergy researchers. It is just not the usual case.
And I really wish people with allergies would ask themselves daily "am I going over the top with this?" because it's getting ridiculous. I read an article about a woman who claims to be allergic to electricity and lives like a cave woman, fears that anyone will answer a cell phone near her. Hasn't anyone explained to her that her muscles and brain only work on electrical signals? Sometimes it's all psychosis.