ELA update: Court limits authority to administer insulin to students with diabetes
Published: November 18, 2008
A Sacramento Superior Court judge Nov. 15 ruled in favor of the California Nurses Association, California School Nurses Organization, and others who brought a lawsuit challenging a settlement agreement entered into by the California Department of Education concerning the rights of students with diabetes.
This ruling is the latest development in a series of lawsuits regarding administration of medication, such as insulin, by unlicensed personnel (that is, those who do not have a medical license) in the school setting. In 2007, CDE issued a legal advisory as part of a settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by the American Diabetes Association and the Disability Rights and Education and Defense Fund. The legal advisory stated that federal law authorized unlicensed school employees to be trained to administer insulin to students when other authorized persons were unavailable. This "option 8" was challenged by the nurses associations as contrary to laws regarding the licensing of nurses.
At last week's hearing, the judge agreed with the nurses' interpretation of the law and invalidated that portion of the legal advisory that authorized the training of unlicensed personnel.
Next Steps
At this time, it is unknown whether this latest ruling will be appealed and whether this ruling will reactivate the first lawsuit. In 2007, CSBA issued a policy advisory, “Rights of Students with Disabilities under IDEA and Section 504,” analyzing the settlement agreement; that advisory is still valid except for the part that discusses training of unlicensed personnel. CSBA will update that advisory and related sample policies when a final ruling is issued by the court.
Resources
CSBA's policy advisory: http://www.csba.org/Services/Services/PolicyServices/~/media/Files/Services/PolicyServices/PolicyBriefs/diabetes_policy_brief.ashx
CDE's Diabetes Management in Schools Web page: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/diabetesmgmt.asp
American Diabetes Association’s School Discrimination Web page:
http://www.diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/discrimination/school.jsp