School Requiring Parents of T1D kids To Attend Field Trips

DD has a field trips next week. I got and returned the permission slip like normal,but today I get an email from the nurse saying therapy(the school)need either myself or my husband to accompany her on her field trip. I can do it this time,but can they make us go every time?I would hate for her to miss a trip because of our schedules

 

The answer to your question will depend on where you live. Are you in the US?

 

My DS' s school did that the first time he had one. Then for the next one they changed their ways and said the school was required to send someone capable to aid my child. I figure the nurse was trying to pull a fast one until she realized how well-read I was. I'd check to see what the legal side of things are before I'd let them get away with that.

 

I ask that we be given the opportunity to attend the field trip, but if no one from my family can go to they would have to have someone go on the field trip to attend to her needs. We are covered by the 504 in this regards.

 

My dd has an IEP. We have it written so that we have first pick at being picked as chaperone but if we can't go, the school will send someone trained in her care.

For the most part, I have gone or a few times my mom has. However this year it was an expensive field trip and I didn't want to spend another $150 for me to go too. DD's in middle school now and does her own care barring severe lows so I just trained the teacher in charge of her group on glucagon, went over the basics/things to watch out for and kept in touch via cell phone.

 

Someone has to go along; I think it may be state law in Illinois because it didn't seem up for negotiation or waiver on my part even if I wanted to. I went on the first field trip - it was less than one week after she had returned to school from diagnosis; I was available and it was going to be very difficult for the nurse to find a substitute on that short of notice.

She has another one coming up in later May that we haven't even received the permission slip for, but I got a call from the nurse about a week ago asking whether I wanted to go or whether I wanted her to go. I told her she was welcome to go as I learned last time that busloads of rowdy 10 year olds aren't really my thing. She laughed and said no problem and that she was only asking because she wanted to verify she needed to line up a sub.

My guess is she'll ask me every time, but I don't feel under any pressure to say I'll go.

 

A Parent of a CWD being required to attend field trips is one of the hallmarks that the ADA uses to define discrimination http://www.diabetes.org/assets/pdfs/schools/your-school-your-rights.pdf

 

Knowing the country and state where you live would be helpful in giving an answer relevant to your situation.

 

Hope you can find your answer.
Luckily, our school provides a sub nurse to tag along on field trips. I have skipped some trips in the past (museum), but I am going on the one next week; it's a large wildlife preserve and the teacher recommended I go since it might take awhile to find the nurse.

 

We had it written in the 504:
"Parent will be given the opportunity to chaperone. In the event parent cannot chaperone, a nurse or trained staff member will accompany the child."
Next week my daughter will be going on a field trip. The nurse won't be able to go and said she is sending the sub nurse (versed in d care). They didn't even get me involved.:cwds:
Now that she is older, I am going to re-write the 504 to take us out of the mix for chaperoning. I will just put nurse/school staff and will also leave it open for my daughter to be responsible for her own care too (for trips in the general area).
LOL, I enjoyed going on the trips when they were in younger grades, but once they hit 4th, You couldn't pay me to go!

As a pp said, class trips is one of the points the ADA focused on for discrimination.

A few questions:
What state/county do you live in?
Do you have a 504?

 

We do our very best to go on all field trips, because it is a pain for the school to line up a sub nurse at the school, but yes. They are legally required to provide someone to care for your child on the field trip.

 

This is what we do as well. Because our district's policy is to have the school nurse (or a substitute if the nurse cannot attend) go if I do not, we generally go unless there is scheduling problem. It seems--at least so far in the younger grades, when perhaps there are more parents willing to chaperone than are needed--the teachers sometimes felt as though I was pulling rank/getting an extra benefit by getting to be a chaperone more than once. On the other hand, our school nurse is aware of the need and cost in getting a substitute nurse and seems to appreciate our being available.

 

I agree that knowing what country/state you are in would be helpful. We are in the US in California and my 9 yr old 4th grader is going on her first field trip since dx. They are going on an hour long boat ride to a national park/conservation land on an island off the coast of where we live and doing a 2-4 mile hike and will be gone from 8am-5pm. There are two 4th grade classes taking this trip and they only have 10 spots for chaperones because of the occupancy of the boats. Her teacher came to me first (I happened to be up at the school doing her lunchtime insulin due to a carb ratio change and the school hadn't gotten the new dr's orders yet) and asked if I wanted to go, if not they would send the regular nurse and would have a sub at the school for that day since Angelina is their priority (she's the only kid at her school with diabetes).

What sucks is they got a grant that paid for all the kids and would have paid for the nurse to go free of charge but since I (or my husband) will technically be one of the chaperones we have to pay $43 for the field trip (as do all the chaperones) and I don't even really want to go, but the nurse is limited in what she can do outside of the dr's orders. Since they are going to be outdoors all day, hiking for a good portion of that, she is going to probably need lots of extra uncovered carbs. Cell service may be spotty out there and I would have no way to get to them in an emergency since they will be an hour away by boat! The other option is for her not to go at all, but we have known about this end of the year trip since the second week of school and she has been looking forward to it. I am SO not looking forward to it because kids are NOT my thing, and outdoors (especially hiking for 2-4 miles) are even LESS my thing, especially in the middle of June with a backpack full of diabetes supplies and snacks.

 

See the sticky on state laws and policies. We are having the same discussion, my wife teaches so for this year and next she will be traveling. After that our district will provide someone that is trained, not sure what that means yet. It is in her 504 that it will be the teacher, principal, secretary, nurse or parent. It will be interesting to see how this works in the future. Please let us know how it works.

 

the state law doesn't say anything about activities outside of the school. I can go on these 2 field trips and I'm happy to do it. We just need to know what Sophie's right are if we can't make a trip.

 

If you have a 504 this should be addressed. If you don't have a 504 you should initiate the process.

 

Federal law trumps state law, and under federal law, the school has to provide someone to care for you daughter on field trips if you can't go.

 

Since you are being hypothetical, I suggest you work on getting a 504 so that the school is clear about what they are supposed to do to provide care for your child. Include this accommodation as others have suggested.

 

My daughters school is like that. It is for her safety. We have 2 nurses at her school, but they cannot possibly go onto the field trips since they will have more children at the school. Since Diabetes is more of a full time concern as opposed to allergies, a parent has to be there. Her school is really wonderful and they let me know as soon as they have the date planned so we can always go. I understand your frustration, but having been on these field trips, I am actually grateful that they require it with the diabetics. It is a busy day and something such as a low or high BG can be missed by teachers that are not used to treating it.

 

While it's true the nurses cannot go to all field trips, there needs to be other staff that are trained in D care. I used to go on field trips when my son was younger, but there comes a time when they just don't want you around anymore (or at least my son didn't ) Our school always has either a teacher or staff member trained in D that goes on class trips, which is fine with me and my son as he's very private about his D and having the nurse along for every trip would be quite obvious.