Rockaway Valley School

Excellence in Education

Like most schools in the United States, we have a number of students in ours that have potentially life threatening food allergies.  Children with food allergies can have life threatening reactions with some exposures to even tiny amounts of allergen.  There are certain things that need to be done to keep these students safe and able to learn.  Because our school has many young children who are still exploring their environment with their hands and their mouths and frequently touch their face, we have school rules that can decrease their chance of an allergic reaction.  It is our goal to ensure that every student in our school can learn in a safe and supportive environment.               

A food allergy is an immune system response to a food that the body mistakenly believes is harmful.  Once the immune system decides that a particular food is harmful, it creates specific antibodies to it.   The next time the individual eats that food, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals, including histamine, in order to protect the body.  These chemicals trigger a cascade of allergic symptoms that can affect the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and/or cardiovascular system.  With each additional episode, the reactions can worsen.

AVOIDANCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT AN ALLERGIC REACTION.

Students with food allergies are most safe when:

1. They eat foods only if they are sent from home.
2. They never share food from others or touch another person’s food.
3. They wash their hands before and after eating.
4. They have their own “goodie” box filled with safe treats from home (for when there are birthdays and other celebrations in the classroom).
5. They sit at the end of the lunch table, closest to the middle of the room (rather than up against the wall).
6. They eat out of their own lunch box or off the lunch plate, so the food never touches the table.
7. They have an established Food Allergy Action Plan that includes emergency contacts as well as physician and parent contact information and signatures.
8. They are proactive in the care and management of their food allergies and reactions based on their developmental level.
9. They notify an adult immediately if they eat something they believe may contain the food to which they are allergic.