Our school is asking if we want to evaluate our daughter and pursue a 504 plan for her peanut allergy. Anybody has experience with that? Is that even necessary?
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I think it depends on your daughter's allergy and also how accommodating/aware the school is.
For my own daughter's peanut allergy, her schools have been pretty easy to work with and she actually has to ingest peanuts to have a reaction so we have not needed a 504.
In K and 1st grade they ate snack in their classroom and we asked that her classroom be designated peanut free for snack time because they were still pretty crazy and messy at that age. At lunch she'd sit at an allergy table, but she kind of hated that because there weren't many kids that would sit there. When she went to camp the summer after 1st grade they did not have an allergy lunch table so she got more comfortable eating next to kids with peanuts, and after that she chose to just sit at whatever lunch table she wanted to.
I think big things are to make sure the teacher understands the importance of having everyone wash their hands before/after eating, that was always a part of my daughter's class routines but I'm not sure if they do that in non allergy classrooms (maybe post covid everyone is better with this ha). Another one is to figure out where they will store her epi-pen and who has access to it / who is trained to use it - we've always opted to have it kept in her classroom as there is not always a nurse on site at our school. If they take a field trip I'd always also remind them to take the epi-pen too and not let her have food unless they called me to check.
My daughter has grown to be an amazing advocate for herself, she's 10 now and actually went to a sleepover this past weekend with a big group of kids - something I NEVER thought I'd be okay with. She checked labels of everything served to her before eating and was able to totally independently figure out what to eat for dinner, dessert and breakfast!
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I don't have a child with allergies, but I am a teacher and our son is in the process of getting a 504 plan for something else. I think there are two main advantages to having a 504 plan for allergies - the school is legally bound to follow the plan so if you anticipate needing accommodations that a random, difficult teacher might resist, it's good to have things in writing. For example, always having all students wipe down their desks after a snack or something like that. The other thing, and part of why we are wanting one for our son, is so that we don't have to start from scratch every year with informing the teacher about what works for him. Since the teacher should review students' 504 plans before the school year starts, they will be able to make the room safe for your daughter right away.
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@Chuckles: that’s a great point about not having to start from scratch every year. Though I do feel like with food allergies eventually it’s up to the kid to keep themselves safe, they aren’t going to always have all these precautions in place, so it’s a good idea to put some of that responsibility on them too. For example this year for 4th grade we’ve asked for no accommodations and just sent in the health form to say she has a peanut allergy and self carries her epi pen in her backpack.
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I would go ahead and get a 504 in place. Even if it seems like no big deal right now, you never know what kinds of teachers/staff/situations you are going to come up against and you want to be able to have - in writing - what your student's needs are. It's not as intimidating a process as it seems. I would do it.
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@togetherthroughlife: @HappyBaker: @Chuckles: @HappyBaker: thank you so much for your insights.
I am trying to understand what has be done in school right now. My daughter told me that she sometimes forget to sit at the allergy table. I am not sure what they told her. A plan would outline would make sense in that case.
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