SFUSD weighing policy for insulin injections
By: Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
January 18, 2009
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| Students at San Francisco public schools in need of insulin will still be able to receive any necessary insulin injections, despite challenges posed by a Sacramento County ruling. (AP file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Insulin-dependent diabetic students in San Francisco public schools will continue to receive the injections they need - despite a Sacramento County ruling restricting which school personnel can administer the shots.
That ruling, issued in late December, forbids nonmedical school staff from administering insulin injections, overturning a California Department of Education mandate in 2007 that allowed teacher's aides and other staff to give shots if they're trained, according to CDE spokeswoman Hilary McLean.
A group of educators and leaders in the San Francisco Unified School District are currently studying what the ruling means for the district, though officials don't believe it applies locally because it was made in another county, according to Dennis Kelly, president of the teachers' union.
However, because the ruling was based on a CDE mandate for districts statewide, it does change the rules in every district, McLean said.
SFUSD, as a matter of policy, doesn't let nonmedical staff give injections - unless no one else on site can give them, and only if staffers volunteer, according to district health director Meyla Ruwin.
The district has 32 nurses for more than 100 schools, and a little more than a dozen insulin-dependent diabetic students young enough to need help with their injections. Those students are enrolled in schools with on-site nurses, Ruwin said.
"Everyone wants what's best for kids, but what danger do you put adults in when you ask non-nurses to give these kinds of medicines?" Kelly said.
