anaphylaxis training for all teachers and carers

The Age, 14 July 2008; The Herald Sun, 15 July 2008

A new Victorian law has come into effect this week that protects the health and wellbeing of allergy-prone children in childcare centres, kindergartens and schools.

The law now requires all schools and childcare facilities with a student at risk of anaphylaxis to have safety-standard policies in place that allow teachers and staff to deal with student’s allergies.

The Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Ms Maxine Morand, stated that ‘Victoria is the first Australian state to introduce laws that require all licensed children's services and those schools with a student diagnosed at risk of severe allergies such as anaphylaxis to have a child management policy in place’.

Child management policies will include training teachers, carers and staff to recognise symptoms and reactions, to administer adrenaline via EpiPens and to develop plans to minimise the risk of a student suffering from anaphylactic shock.

However, the law does not go so far as to ban nut products. Ms Morand believes that a ban on food allergens in schools and childcare centres would be impractical and difficult to enforce when it came to allergens such as eggs, fruit, milk and wheat.

Yet Fred Ackerman, the President of the Victorian Principals Association, believes that bans are quite common. ‘High-risk foods such as nut products have been off canteen menus for a long time,’ he said.

For further information, visit Student Health – Anaphylaxis in Schools.

 

 

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