Addressing Celiac Dx With School

[africanqueen99]

My seven year old (2nd grade) has gotten a DX, but I haven't addressed anything with the school yet since she's not 100% gluten-free as she's having her scope at the end of the month. 

 

I have a couple of weeks to get all my thoughts in order.  Please help me brainstorm who I talk to at the school and what should be addressed. 

 

* Do I need a 504?

* Meet with Principal, Nurse, Teacher - have a written plan ready to go?

* Lunch (our lunchroom is NOT gluten-free) - have her eat on a napkin?  I do not want to isolate her - she's a *very* social kid and it would break her to not get to spend time with her little besties.

* Request that she has access to the toilet after any possible "glutenings" as long as she doesn't abuse the privilege (I don't think she would ever just get up and walk out, but I want the school to know that she needs to be respected when she needs to go.

* Request that she has access to water and soap for hand washing and not just hand sanitizer.

* Request a small space in a freezer for treats during birthday parties - teacher would have access.

* Request a head's up for any "special" activities (ex, they all worked with clay in the classroom) to approve the activity.

* What else?

 

How did you do this and what was the age of your child?  For what it's worth, I will need to do another meeting for the middle kid's (3 y/o) preschool.

 

Thanks!

[w8in4dave]

Well I would certainly talk to the principal , Nurse and teacher, also the head Chef at the school. Find out if your daughter is the only one that is Celiac. I don't know what a 504 is I assume it is a DR. Order If you can get one I would!!! Maby at 1st you can make her lunch, absolutely make sure she has access to the restroom at any given moment! That you should make sure of! I would talk to anyone you can!! Especially the cooking staff!! They have got to know how bad this is for a child! Some just don't know about it.. If you talk to the principal first he may help you thru all this..

[Fourmonkeysjumping]

I went in and sat down with the nurse and teacher. I didn't bother with the principal, because he or she has no direct working contact with my kids during the day. I did not personally go the 504 route, but both of my kids are in tiny schools (daughter is a peer model in an integrated preschool with 6 classes of 15 kids) and son has only 30 kids in his grade - 2 classes per grade k-5. If they were in bigger schools I probably would, though. I'm also good friend with my daughters principal.

Anyway, we sat and talked and came up with a written plan. He washes his hands before snacks or meals (he actually goes to the nurses office with a boy who tests his sugars and another boy who has continence issues and they are the nurses office buddies and have been for three years). If there is ever any food (and there rarely is, our school doesn't allow parties or any of that silliness), they call me and either check on the food of ask me to send more. We hit the jackpot with my sons first grade teacher - her daughter is a celiac, so whe pn thy did dr Seuss day, she brought him specia gluten-free ham, etc.

My daughter is in a school that provides snacks. She mostly brings her own now, but the teacher emails me and ets me know if the snack will be gluten-free for the week. They clean all tables before and after all all of the kids must wash their hands before and after. I send in gluten-free play dough and they talked to all of the kids about gluten.

We are moving to a bigger school in a year and a half and will likely have a 504 plan for each kid at that point. Right now, though, things seem to be going smoothly for both kids.

[Fourmonkeysjumping]

Oh yes, and while i know that technically, I can demand gluten-free cafeteria meals, I would never do that. I wouldn't because 1. I wouldn't ever trust cafeteria style serving could keep things gluten-free and 2. Cafeteria food is nt the quality I want my kids eating. So, we also did not go that route.

[StephanieL]

It sounds like you have pretty much everything covered. I am personally in favor of 504's because it's a document that follows them up through college and this is pretty nice!  If you decide you want to go the 504 route I can give you some pointers on how to start that process.

 

Some of the other things I would clear up are:

 

1) Use of food containers for arts/craft.  

2) Specify how much notice for birthday party treats.

3) Handeling of class parties overall. 

 

We currently have a 504 plan with I believe 19 accommodations for my first grader. He deals with more than Celiac disease food wise so it's much more extensive because of that.  A 504 is a fluid document so if you do get one and find some things are working and some are not, you can always alter it with a meeting.

 

HTH

[africanqueen99]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Fourmonkeysjumping - I'm not even interested in having them make gluten-free lunches in the cafeteria.  Our elementary is huge (4 classes in each grade) so there are a lot of kids and some others could probably benefit from this even though there are no other celiacs in the school (according to the nurse).  It's just a lot of work on their part when I can happily make lunches at home - better quality ones, too!

 

Stephanie - yes, I'd very much love to hear the process and pointers for the 504.  (I'm going to PM you too in case you don't come back to this thread.)