Parents of kids with asthma have a unique opportunity to become an advocate for the health of their children and other children with asthma at their local schools. The first step you can take is to become more familiar with how asthma friendly your school is.
The Pediatric/Adult Asthma Coalition of New Jersey has set some specific standards for certifying public schools in the state as "Asthma Friendly." These standards include:
Having a nebulizer in each school, a device that can open the airways of a child with asthma.
Ensuring that staff members receive a special training session on asthma management.
Ensuring each school nurse conducted a presentation for classroom teachers on the "ABCs of Asthma" and asthma management.
Ensuring each school nurse completed a training presentation dubbed "Asthma Action Plan: School Nurses Leading the Way."
Ensuring a school representative completed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) indoor air quality program, "Tools for Schools."
Signing a "no idling" pledge, a project of the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, that asks bus drivers to turn off school bus engines while waiting to load and unload students, in an effort to reduce emissions.
If you don't live in N.J. but are interested in learning more about this initiative, be sure to visit the coalition's website and study some of their materials. There are also all kinds of helpful materials for schools at the EPA website that can be downloaded.
Bring what you learn to the attention of your school nurse and other school officials, if needed. Or take the issue to your school's Parent-Teacher Association.
Here are some questions from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health that you can ask of your school officials to help decide how "Asthma Friendly" your child's school is:
Does the school maintain good indoor air quality? Do staff work to reduce or eliminate allergens and irritants that can make asthma worse?
Is your school free of tobacco smoke all of the time, including during school-sponsored events? Cigarette smoke is one of the worst irritants for people with asthma and schools should be totally smoke-free if they are going to promote health.
Is there a school nurse in your school all day, every day? If there isn't, is a nurse available to the school on a regular basis to help write healthy environment plans and to give guidance to students with asthma and their teachers about medicines, physical education, and field trips?
Can children take medicines at school as recommended by their doctor and parents? May children carry their own asthma medicines? Part of asthma management is being able to address symptoms with a quick-relief inhaler as soon as they begin. This helps avoid symptoms worsening into a life-threatening asthma attack that will require emergency help. Most states now have what are called "right to carry" laws that allow kids to carry asthma inhalers and autoinjectable epinephrine to stave off allergy and asthma attacks.
Does your school have an emergency plan for taking care of a child with a severe asthma episode (attack)? Ideally, every child will have a personalized asthma action plan on file in the school nurse's office. Lacking that, the school should have a generic plan of action that can be used as needed. The plan should outline what actions to take, who to call, and when to seek emergency care.
Does someone teach school staff about asthma, asthma management plans, and asthma medicines? Many of the materials on the EPA site would be helpful with this issue. Be sure to refer your school's staff to their website.
Do students have good options for fully and safely participating in physical education class and recess? Do students have access to their medicine before exercise? Can they choose modified or alternative activities when medically necessary? If the answer is no, to any or all of these questions, then there is a high risk of asthma attacks. Students with asthma may need some modification of exercise activities and should be allowed to pace themselves or use their quick-relief inhalers as needed.
Schools today are much more aware of the need to modify their environments to be "asthma friendly" because so many children today have asthma. Still, it never hurts to ask questions and confirm that your child's school is a healthy place for him or her to spend a large part of every school day.
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