OP here-- thank you for all of your replies. Wow-- it is making me nervous about sending my DS to school in a few years (he is only 2 right now) but we want to figure out where to move before he is out of his daycare/ preschool. He is currently allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs. Peanuts and tree nuts being the worst. Sounds like things vary school by school. I just dont think I can send him to a school where his epis are locked in the nurses office and not in his classroom. I am about to cry even thinking about it. We have had 3 very scary incidents and hospital visits while trying to figure out his allergies. Does anyone have a 504 plan in place that allows the epis in the classroom?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the allergies? MCPS only cares about nut allergies.

No, they don't. They serve nuts at school lunches. Ours doesn't even have a nut free table. They have given my child food he was allergic to and insisted he eat it when he asked what was in it. Multiple ER visits at pick up.

Wow. At our school in MCPS, kids can invite 2 friends to eat with them at the nut free table. But, nobody is checking to make sure friends have nut free lunches. Most days 1 of the friends eats PB&J sandwich while at the table. It's a terrible system, nobody is monitoring that table at our school.

20:33 here again my school also has multiple medically certified staff members for field trips and in the absence of our nurse.

I work in a DC charter that keeps epi pens locked but also has emergency allergy kits mounted next go our AED machine near our main entrance. Both kits include directions and a crisis response plan. As someone trained to handle both types of incidents I am very grateful.

Fairfax County Public Schools will allow self carry AND storage in clinic. Also classroom teacher will be trained on EpiPen admin. Typically an entire emergency team will be assembled, trained and certified by a public health nurse to respond to EpiPen/glucagon and CPR

Our DCPS is nut free, and my child has a severe nut allergy. I didn’t realize it was school by school.

My MCPS school seems pretty accommodating. There is a nut free lunch table...and I have even seen a desk that is wiped down for a child that must have even more issues. Nut free classrooms are marked at the door and parents are notified at the beginning of the year. Pictures of kids with allergies are posted on the teachers desk for subs.

Anonymous wrote:What are the allergies? MCPS only cares about nut allergies.

No, they don't. They serve nuts at school lunches. Ours doesn't even have a nut free table. They have given my child food he was allergic to and insisted he eat it when he asked what was in it. Multiple ER visits at pick up.

What are the allergies? MCPS only cares about nut allergies.

Not sure which food allergies you are dealing with but know several DC public charter schools which are entirely nut-free while friends in suburban school systems mention just a nut-free table in the cafeteria.

It really depends on the specific school. Our school has a full-time nurse, and both the school and the aftercare programs are nut-free. Other schools have different staffing and different policies.

I think it's so frustrating that as a childcare director, our regs (which are so incredibly strict for 4,000 reasons) at least don't require that epipens be locked up. They travel in the teacher's emergency backpack which is always with the classroom. Albuterol and spacers also travel there for kids with asthma, as that can be a life threatening emergency, too.

And yet when they get to public school, the public school teachers aren't allowed to have these in their classroom. Locked in the nurse's office! HA! What happens when the nurse is out sick? Or they start sharing nurses between 2 school systems so they aren't at school every day? ANYONE can be (and should be) trained to use an epipen. So be trained, have it accessible, and move forward. I train my staff every single year in the use of epipens.

A friend of mine moved to Fairfax school system because of this exact reason. They were living in a Moco town and went and interviewed the public school when their child was 3 years old and weren't comfortable with what they heard as how they handled things (their child also had severe food allergies).

They visited many other school systems and chose Fairfax. They love it.

You should join the NOVA food allergy group on Yahoo, if you haven't already, and inquire there. I think the answer is that it really just depends on the individual school's enforcement. My son's school keeps all the meds locked in the health unit (we do not have him self-carry yet). There are legitimate concerns that if he required his epi-pen, would they be able to find someone to open the cabinets and get it to him in time. I don't know. Luckily, he hasn't needed it. Some of his friends have, though, and the parents were very happy with how it was handled.

My DS has severe food allergies and we currently live in DC. We are open to moving to VA or MD for him to attend public school but want to make sure they are equipped to handle his food allergies. Originally, we intended to try the DC charter school lottery for him but we are hearing of staffing issues with school nurses in DC. What have other folks done? What are the best public schools to attend with reasonable commuting time for parents into DC for full time jobs?