Law Could Improve Diabetes Care

This is possible thanks to the Care for School Children with Diabetes Act, which both the N.C. House and Senate supported in unanimous votes and which Gov. Mike Easley signed into law in early September.

The purpose of the law is to protect the safety and education of diabetic students by allowing them to check their insulin in the classroom without aid and to ensure that school nurses and faculty are educated about their needs. North Carolina is the fourth state to pass such a law.

In the past, teachers sent students out of the classroom to nurses' and principals' offices to check their blood sugar, said Sharon Pearce, who led the push to pass the law.

"Some of them were losing up to four hours of instructional time per week," Pearce said.

Students were not allowed to carry their insulin needles -- long considered weapons -- with them in some schools.

The American Diabetes Association recommendations, which the law requires every school to meet or exceed, ask that children have "immediate access to diabetes supplies at all times, with supervision as needed."

Schools used to require supervision of students while they were doing their testing, a process Pearce's daughter goes through four to six times daily.

This is a problem for diabetic students in schools that do not employ a full-time nurse.

Kim Hoke, the spokeswoman for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, said the system's 14 schools share eight full-time and six part-time nurses.

"But most (N.C.) school systems don't have that kind of support," she said.

Stephanie Willis, school nurse for Ephesus Elementary School, estimated that Orange County has two to five diabetic students per site at the elementary level.

ADA recommends diabetic students only be required to have supervision as necessary.

"Most kids can take care of themselves," said John Bowdish, a member of the statewide Diabetes Advisory Counsel.

Under the new law, teachers will be trained to recognize signs that a child has low blood sugar. Physicians will meet with those in the schools who volunteer to learn each child's specific needs.

Some are concerned with how schools will handle the new requirements.

Neil Pedersen, the superintendent of the school system, said his concern is the responsibilities the law places on teachers and untrained staff.

"It's going to require some attention on everyone's part, and it's probably going to create some concerns in schools because we're going to be asking some people to do things we haven't asked them to do before and that they don't feel qualified to do," Pedersen said.

Others worry about how the law will affect the treatment of other diseases, like AIDS or asthma.

"Some educators fear that if they make these kinds of arrangements for diabetes that they will have to make these kind of regulations for every childhood disease," said Eckard, who is a certified registered nurse and anesthetist.

Janet Reaves, a member of the Diabetes Advisory Council, said the council might work with a Department of Public Instruction subcommittee to develop further instructional methods.

She said working with school nurses to implement the law will be key.

Pearce and Eckard say they are excited the law passed so easily. If it hadn't, they said, they would not have given up.

"We didn't pick this fight," Eckard said. "It picked us."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.