There was no bill from last year’s session that I received more
calls regarding than the CPR bills (Senator Stuart’s SB 986 and Delegate
Dudenhefer’s HB 2028). Although VEA tried
unsuccessfully to amend these bills last session, and although I wrote about
the bills on this blog last year, members were angry with me that the bills
passed. They were upset regarding the training
requirements, the fact that many of them had to pay for the training, and the
fact that every year more is put on the plate of the teacher. One member told me, “It was EpiPens last
year, now it’s defibrillators! What will
it be next? Well, we have the answer.
The “next” is that you may be required by the parent of one
of your students to be a “delegated care aide” to a diabetic student if Senator
Stuart’s SB 532 and Delegate Cole’s HB 134 pass. Even if you are not designated by a parent to
be the aide, you will have to have training.
The bills are very similar, and here is the summary of SB
532 from Legislative Services:
Care of students who have been diagnosed
with diabetes. Requires the parents of any
public school student who has been diagnosed with diabetes to designate in a
diabetes care plan a delegated care aide to provide diabetes care for the
student, including the administration of insulin and glucagon, when a school nurse
or physician is not present in the school or at a school-sponsored activity.
The bill also requires the delegated care aide to receive training in diabetes
care and every school employee to receive basic training in responses to
emergency situations and changes from one to two the minimum number of
employees in a school that must be trained with regard to a student with
diabetes who attends the school. The bill further allows a student to perform
certain tasks in the management of his diabetes. The bill requires schools at
which a student diagnosed with diabetes is in attendance, to possess an
emergency supply of glucagon in addition to any glucagon provided to the school
by the parent of such a student. The bill provides that no school board shall prohibit
a student who has been diagnosed with diabetes from attending a school or a
school-sponsored activity on the basis of his diabetes. Finally, the bill
prohibits a school nurse or delegated care aide from being disciplined for
ordinary negligence in acts or omissions made during the care of a student who
has been diagnosed with diabetes. The bill contains technical amendments.
Should the parent designate who the “delegated care aide”
should be? Who is going to pay for the
training? Isn’t this an unfunded
mandate? Suppose you don’t want to be
designated?
With great sympathy for diabetic children, it seems that
there has got to be a better way to skin this cat. Why shouldn’t the state help fund the health
care professionals we need to provide these services? We cannot keep adding to the list of expected
areas of expertise for teachers.
If this bill is one you oppose, now is the time to act. SB 532 will be heard by the Senate Committee
on Education and Health: Subcommittee on
Public Education on Monday afternoon. It
is time to call and email members of this subcommittee, and they are:
