Juvenile Diabetes: My Son's Journey as a T1D Superhero! : Sabrina's Law only came about through tragedy: T1D families would like to prevent a similar course for the Glucagon Law

Dear Beth,

Thank you for your email dated March 18th advocating for a policy change to allow administration of Glucagon to Type 1 Diabetic public school students. I have taken the time to share and discuss your request and rationale with fellow trustees and senior board administration.

As you are aware, there is a Life -Threatening Management Plan in place for your son and training has been done with staff to ensure they are aware of signs and symptoms prior to any possible emergency and how to best react. The Standards of Care, for students with Type 1 Diabetes in School, produced by the Canadian Diabetes Association recommends a multitude of preventative steps to take to ensure a student never experiences severe hypoglycemia. It does recommend that staff be trained in administering a syringe of Glucagon if the response time of EMS exceeds 20 minutes. We have been assured that the response time of EMS to Victory PS would be 8 minutes as it is situated so close to the hospital.

You are also correct that the after school program does need to follow our boards' policies / procedures and protocols as per their community use contract.

Currently, Waterloo Catholic and Waterloo Public have the same protocol we do, as indeed do most other boards. Wellington Catholic has amended their policy and it is apparently in practice in one school. This comes with a doctor's "order" and a waiver from the parents. The Client Services Manager at the Waterloo Wellington Community Care Access Centre has been contacted and agrees that our protocol is sound and the proper response would be to contact 911 in an emergency. As such, the board will not be taking any action to alter our policy at this time.

Although you may be disappointed in your request being denied I want to thank you for your advocacy work on behalf of your child, and wish to encourage you to continue this conversation with your local MP and MPP should you wish to pursue having such a procedure become a law.

Sincerely,

Mark Bailey