Jonathan F. (Jon) Duncan, Thursday, February 16, 2012 | Filed under: Food Allergies, School Board Policies, Non-discrimination, Legislation, Disabilities, Office of Civil Rights
The U.S. Department of Education recently provided two resources designed to aid schools in interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The first resource is a
Dear Colleague letter which highlights changes to the ADA adopted in 2008 (made effective in January 2009). The second resource is a
Questions and Answers document which provides basic information about OCR and application of the statutory amendments to students, or other individuals, who may be protected by the ADA and/or Section 504. While neither resource can provide answers to detailed scenarios, both documents provide a good refresher on these important disability discrimination laws. The documents also include important policy-related reminders and links to other helpful authorities.
Jonathan F. (Jon) Duncan, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 | Filed under: Food Allergies
The National School Boards Association, through funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, produced and released a new resource regarding food allergies. It's titled "Safe at School and Ready to Learn: a Comprehensive Policy Guide for Protecting Students with Life-Threatening Food Allergies" and you can review it
here. The guide contains recommendations for policies, best practices, medication protocols, communication channels, and prevention/evaluation strategies. It also contains other helpful tools including a checklist, glossary and list of allergy-related resources. As schools continue to see increased allergy activity, and related costs/exposure, this guide could be a great help to administrators and educators alike.