A little something in the news the other day caught my eye: schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area of North Carolina have organized an informational meeting especially for families of diabetic pupils. The meeting was titled "Diabetes: Back to School Basics." Reports The Charlotte Observer, the idea is to prepare parents and children for the school-year, looking specifically at how diabetic kids should expect to deal with their condition during school hours, what parents can and cannot expect of school staff and so on.

Also included on the agenda was a chance for parents and kids to work on personalized care plans for while they're at school. The meeting is also a chance for everyone to meet the diabetes nurse who has just joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district. The nurse is trained in diabetes management and will be available to help kids and parents with educational materials and resources.

Here's to the powers-that-be at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. You can see there is a problem with so many diabetic kids in your schools, (The Observer says around four hundred kids in that school district are diabetic), and you are tackling it head-on. What I'm not clear on is what the schools' policy is on insulin-dependent type 1 kids who need shots during school hours. This has become so problematic of late, with schools concerned about liability issues in having staff assist with supervising/administering shots. But, nevertheless, this is a sign of the times and a good one. In fact, this is so good I'm wondering...why don't all schools do this?

As Bev observed in a post yesterday, California schools will now be required to ensure that diabetic kids get their medical needs met during school hours. Parents are relieved by the settlement, which was reached between the California Department of Education and two school districts (on one side) and four families with diabetic children, working in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

It's a thorny issue. If you require by law that kids be in school during specified hours, you'd better make darn sure you can meet their needs while they're there. As Michelle Ferry, mom of a seven-year-old boy with diabetes, observed "If I had a child in a wheelchair, they wouldn't expect me to come in and take them out of a wheelchair" as necessary throughout the school day. Michelle, you see, was required to drop everything and come running to the school when her son needed a shot because there was no one at the school willing/qualified/permitted to administer it.

While she has a point, you could also argue that helping a (developmentally normal) child in and out of a wheelchair doesn't require special training. Helping a child monitor and adjust his or her blood sugar level most certainly does. Understandably, school administrators were, and remain, concerned about legal liability. Teachers also have a right to be concerned.