OT - Food allergies in school

I'm with Windsor Essex Catholic - here is the policy they have developed - http://www.wecdsb.on.ca/pdf/policies/ST11A.pdf

Hi Trudy, I work in a school in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. Our board does have a proecdure in place for students with severe/life-threatening allergies. You can go to the website for OCDSB and read the policy.  As for our school specifically, we have a few students who have life threatening peanut allergies, amongst other allergies. We have taken every precaution to ensure the kids are safe.  We are putting up posters of all the children, their symptoms, the procedures to follow if they have a reaction etc. These are placed in every common area of the school as well as any classrooms the children may spend time in. We have placed no peanuts allowed signs in every door of the school, including those facing the outside so the general public visiting knows not to bring peanuts in. We contact each parent indivudally and ask them to provide two epi-pens, one that the child keeps on him/herself in a fanny pack of if the child is too young the teacher in the classroom holds it. In the case of the latter, the teacher hands it off to any teachers when the child goes to another room i.e. french, gym etc. We keep the second epi-pen in the office. Epi pen locations are noted on the children's posters as well.  And to be even more safe we have purchased 2 junior general epi-pens to have on hand just in case. We also put a spare Epi-pen in our yard duty bag so there is always one outside at recess.This takes away a worry of perhaps a staff member forgetting to turn the epi-pen over during a transition to outside.  Letters were sent home the 1st day on bright coloured paper telling parents that no peanuts are allowed due to the allergies. This year as well, because we have several peanut allergies, egg allergies and milk allergies, we are sending a letter home instructing parents to please send non-edible treats for their child's birthday, should they wish him/her to celebrate it with their classmates. Unfortunately some parents might view this last item as wrong or carrying things too far, but I think given an explanation, they will be fine with it. We had a seperate staff meeting to make all staff aware of the children and who they spend time with. And finally, the children do sit with their classmates in the lunchroom, however, they are at the end of the table closest to our lunchroom staff member, who everyday, reminds children they are not to share their lunch and keeps an eye on them. Alas, given all of this of course you will still have people that will send their children with peanuts etc., however, I find it VERY disturbing to hear that staff members do this.  We are talking about a child's life after all.