Diabetes Medical Management Plan

It is also important to have a Diabetes Medical Management Plan (DMMP) for your child. The DMMP is prepared by your child’s personal diabetes healthcare team and outlines the medical orders for all aspects of your child’s routine and emergency diabetes care. The DMMP may be included as part your child’s 504 Plan. Some schools may use different terms for the DMMP, such as Diabetes Care Plan or Health Care Plan, but they are all designed to accomplish the same thing.

The DMMP should include information on the child’s date of diagnosis, contact information for parents and healthcare providers, as well as, specific medical orders for checking blood glucose and administering insulin. Trained school personnel will use the DMMP to develop your child’s Individualized Health Care Plan and the Emergency Care Plans for Hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia.

Your child’s DMMP plan should be reviewed and updated each school year and any time there is a change to his or her prescribed care plan, level of self-management, or school circumstances.

More information on DMMPs and helping to ensure students with diabetes succeed in school can be found on the American Diabetes Association website as part of their Safe at School program.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

It is important to note that your child’s rights are also covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law specifically prohibits all schools and day care centers—except those run by religious institutions—from discrimination against people with disabilities, including T1D. Its definition of disability is the same as in Section 504 (includes diabetes). The laws within this act declares a child with T1D has the right to go to school, play a sport, join a club, and do everything else that children without T1D do. It further states that public schools and other covered organizations must make “reasonable accommodations” for the child’s T1D.

Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Individualized Education Program (IEP)

Many students with T1D do not qualify for Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) protection, but it is important to know what it is in case you may qualify. This law covers children whose disability impairs their academic performance. It requires that such children be given a “free, appropriate public education.” Qualification depends on how T1D affects the student’s ability to learn.

If a student qualifies, he/she has the right to develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with his/her school. An IEP is similar to a Section 504 but includes specific measures to address the child’s academic performance and needed special education and other related services.

4 Steps to Implementing a School Plan

1. Ideally, you should contact the school before your child comes home from the hospital after diagnosis. Talk with the principal, your child’s teachers and coaches stating your fears, concerns and hopes for your child in general and while in school. This will help and provide the school with a deeper sense of what’s going on for you and your child.

2. Try to arrange a general meeting for school personnel where you and someone from your healthcare team present a brief presentation on T1D in school age children. It should be a brief, basic review of the essentials of what T1D is and how it is generally managed. The end should focus on outlining your child’s specific plan. Assure the school staff that you want to build a partnership between the child’s diabetes care team and her school team.

3. Before sending your child (back) to school, make sure that you have prepared a School Diabetes Emergency kit that stays in the school nurse’s or administrator’s office. Minimally, the kit should include:

• Extra insulin, about a 2–3 day supply in case of emergencies like hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.
• Extra insulin pen needles, syringes or pump infusion sets.
• Low blood-sugar treatments.
• Snacks, if your child’s management plan calls for them, like crackers, energy bars, etc.
• A glucagon kit, the use of which should be reviewed with school personnel.
• A brief outline of your child’s insulin regimen and meal plan.
• And anything else that you can think of that would be important in the caring of your child by someone else.

4. Replenish the kit from time to time. Replenishing the kit from time to time also gives you, the parent, an opportunity to have face-to-face time with school personnel, checking in with them to see how things are going.