DISCLAIMER: This blog is one a student’s experience of planning to go back to school with T1D. We encourage you to explore JDRF’s back-to-school resources, like our 504 guides, here https://www.jdrf.org/t1d-resources/living-with-t1d/school/504-plans/

Hello everyone, I’m finally a sophomore at High School. This year will be a lot easier for me than last, as I know the protocol and what to expect. I was diagnosed at 13 soI can’t be much help regarding younger students back to school experience.

To prepare for back to high school, the first thing my Mom did was schedule an appointment with my pediatric endocrinologist about 5 months before school started. It  It’s important for me  to have this appointment within a few weeks of the start of school start. because its when my endocrinologist fills out a Diabetes Medical Management Plan (DMMP). Palm Beach County Public Schools does not allow you to use an online form, only the DMMP form that the endocrinologist has in their office will be accepted. This DMMP is the basis for a 504 plan or IEP that will have accommodations for the student’s diabetes.

Now I have my DMMP, it’s time for me to meet with my school’s Exceptional Student Education, better known as ESE coordinator, and get my accommodations. Every  student with type one diabetes will have slightly different accommodations, but these accommodations should enable the student to stay healthy (i.e. manage the student’s levels) and perform academically to the best of his/her abilities. My accommodations include the permission to eat in class when my blood sugar gets low and to go to the bathroom whenever I need to manage my diabetes, like pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) changes.. Since I am on a pump, if I need to administer insulin to treat a high, I just use my controller. Other students may need to go to the nurse’s office to inject insulin.  My school gives me a hall pass.

Very important for high school students is how the school accommodates for testing. Oftentimes,  students with type one diabetes are permitted to start and stop tests during glycemic episodes. This protocol is often easier if the student tests in a small group setting. I have an accommodation to test in a small group setting and I am allowed to start and stop tests to treat both lows and highs. For smaller tests and quizzes, i.e., not finals or mid-terms, I often just test in the classroom with the whole class. Dwyer is on a block schedule, so I usually have 1.5 hours to complete a test which has been sufficient. Also, I am on good terms with my teachers and they know about my accommodations. If I do have a problem, I trust them to help me out and give me the time I lost from managing my diabetes. My ESE coordinator has also been responsible for making sure when I take standardized tests, such as those administered by the college board or Aice or IB, I do test in small groups and I am not penalized if I have to treat a low or a high.  All three standardized tests allow me to start and stop the tests so, I don’t lose time when I have a low or a high.  Last year, at the start of my AP Statistics tests I was 280, probably because of nerves. I had to wait an hour after everyone else started the test to start the test. I was also able to end the test an hour later so, I had the same amount of time as everyone else.

Besides accommodations for treating my diabetes in the class and getting testing accommodations, there’s one other accommodation I request that is important in the case of emergencies. In the event I miss school for a diabetes related reason, e.g. going into diabetic ketoacidosis, I’m able to make up work without being penalized. Thankfully, such an emergency has never happened. However, being proactive can help save your academic record and prevent the loss of a semester if an emergency does occur. After all, diabetes can be unpredictable and can throw some curveballs!

Working out the details of my accommodations for sophomore year took all of 2 minutes because I had the same ESE coordinator as freshman year and I just used the same accommodations for sophomore year. Once my 504 plan is set, I try to have a conversation with each of my teachers about how diabetes impacts me, and how it may inadvertently impact the classroom. And it does impact the classroom. The alarms can be loud and annoying, and other students might not find it fair when I’m allowed to eat and they’re not. As such, I work with my teachers to find ways to mitigate these annoyances, so class can be a little less stressful for me and my classmates. It also helps that I always carry smarties to treat lows, and I’m able to discreetly bolus using my insulin pump to treat highs, meaning I have easy and quiet ways of managing my diabetes that I can do without significantly disrupting the classroom. I also frequently turn off my alarms once they go off and just check my CGM to make sure my insulin levels are reacting to my treatment. This practice saves the classroom a 30-minute stream of annoying alarms, but I have to be on my game and not forget that my levels need to be monitored and treated.

With my accommodations “wrapped up”, I now have to get some supplies to bring in prior to school starting. I bring in one vial of insulin, 3 pumps, 2 sensors, 1 transmitter