The Crucial Role of Health Care Professionals in Advocating for Students With Diabetes

When Tracy Milligan enrolled her elementary school–aged son Jared, who has type 1 diabetes, in his neighborhood school in Jacksonville, Fla., she was told that, because there was no school nurse onsite to administer insulin, Jared would be sent to another school where there was a full-time nurse—unless she was willing to leave work every day to come to school and administer his insulin herself. Jared, like other children who are too young to administer their own insulin, would be forced to leave his friends and familiar school setting because the school district refused to train other school staff members to administer insulin. Only 5 of the 103 schools in Jacksonville were willing to provide the care Jared needed. Ms. Milligan turned to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which led a successful effort to pass a state law that provides for appropriate care for students with diabetes and prohibits the segregation that Jared and many others like him faced.¹

Amy Coffey was told that her son Connor, a kindergartener, could not go on field trips unless he was accompanied by a parent and that he would be required to go to the nurse's office to check his blood glucose level, even if he felt hypoglycemia symptoms. There was no plan in place for caring for Connor when the nurse was absent, and Connor's bus driver knew nothing about how to recognize and treat hypoglycemia. After Ms. Coffey contacted ADA for help, the Association and one of its local volunteer attorneys worked to ensure that the school developed a plan to address all of these concerns to keep Connor medically safe at school.

These problems are examples of those faced by children with diabetes, who are denied opportunities to academically thrive and safely participate in school activities with their …