Does ruling put diabetic students at risk?
Dana Hull – San Jose Mercury News (California) – January 31, 2009 http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11595851 California is in the middle of a massive debate on the best care for children with diabetes. After a state judge ruled that qualified nurses are the only school personnel who can administer insulin, parents of the more than 15,000 diabetic children enrolled in California schools are learning to cope. These parents are pushing for school districts to hire nurses, going to the school to administer the insulin, and sometimes opting for home schooling. And they are caught between the crossfire of School Nurse groups and diabetes advocates. California only averages one nurse for every 2,219 students, making it one of the highest nurse-to-student ratios in the country. In Morgan Hill Unified district, for example, three part-time nurses share responsibility for the 9,000 students on the 15 campuses. And, it’s not uncommon for a nurse to shuttle between two or three different schools.
