Overview

All district school boards and school authorities are expected to develop and maintain policies to support students in schools who have:

  • asthma
  • risk of anaphylaxis
  • diabetes
  • epilepsy

All school boards are required to:

  • support students with prevalent medical conditions to fully access school in a safe, accepting and healthy learning environment that supports well-being
  • empower students, as confident and capable learners, to reach their full potential for self-management of their medical condition(s), according to their Plan of Care

Read the policy on supporting children and students with prevalent medical conditions (anaphylaxis, asthma, diabetes, and/or epilepsy) in schools (Policy and Program Memorandum 161).

Create a Plan of Care

For each student with a prevalent medical condition, parents, teachers and principals are required to work together to co-create an individualized Plan of Care. The plan will include at minimum:

  • ways the school can reduce risk of medical incidents in the classroom and throughout the school
  • information on daily or routine management accommodations needs of the student
  • how to support the student to enable their full participation in all school and school board activities
  • information to school staff related to storage and disposal of medications
  • information to identify symptoms and response in the case of a medical incident, including emergency contact information

The parent(s) in consultation with the principal and the student (as appropriate) should review the Plan of Care during the first thirty school days of every school year and, as appropriate, during the school year.

Learning about medical conditions

Through curriculum content in classroom instruction, other related learning experiences, and classroom leadership opportunities, all students learn about prevalent medical conditions that affect their classmates and other students at the school.

Training for school staff

School boards are expected to have policies that include strategies for providing training related to prevalent medical conditions for school staff who have direct contact with students with medical condition(s). Training should happen at least once per year.

Training should ensure school staff know how to prevent risk, support inclusion and recognize symptoms of a medical incident.

Resources about medical conditions

Learn more about schools and prevalent medical conditions. The links to third party content are for general informational purposes only and are not a recommendation or an endorsement: