Does the school know which meds?

[2pearl]

I'm just curious what other people do in terms of disclosing med information to the school.
If your child does not have an IEP or 504 do you still disclose if and what meds your child takes? I'm debating the pros and cons of this for my DS.

[my3texans]

At orientation, my school has parents fill out or take home and return several forms. Everyone fills out new ones every year to help unsure the school has up to date info on each child. Included is a medical form for the nurse, it asks Dr. names, special conditions/dx's, and any meds a child is taking, insurance info, etc. This lets the school know in case the child has a reaction to a med while at school, not just what & if a child is to take meds at school. They also ask which hospital to take your child to in an emergency.

I let my son's teacher know also, so if she notices that the meds seem to be wearing off, she can let me know.

I felt the school should be, at least, aware that DS is taking meds (he takes one daily, before school) in case he has some sort of reaction/side effect while at school.

[Beverly]

I have always filled it in on the Emergency Contact forms that were mentioned above. In Elementary School, it is suuch a small setting that I didn't have to tell the teachers-they already knew. I didn't want to tell the teachers he had ADHD because I expected them to have preconceived notions and to operate toward them. When my son was in 6th grade and started having the problems that led to the comorbid bipolar dx, it was the teachers (knowing his ADHD dx though I had not told them) who approached me and asked if I had "changed his meds" and "what was going on"? The teachers spend an overwhelming amount of time with our children and really need to know what they are dealing with so that you can get accurate feedback. The teachers had been having problems with him for several weeks but had not wanted to address it with me-it happened that I walked into the school that day for something completely unrelated and they saw their chance. I now email the teachwers at the beginning of the year and explain my son's strengths and weaknesses and that I do not allow him to use his dx as an excuse for bad behavior. I get much more immediate feedback having done this.

Dont' leave the teachers in the dark. Like a child with diabetes who needs to be watched for blood sugar highs and lows, our children must be watched.

[carina]

We have a meeting with the teacher on Monday evening. I am not going to tell her which meds Frans, 12, takes, but I am going to ask her to inform me if she notices anything unusual with him. She knows he is bipolar. With Liza, 17, we had to inform the school where she was previously, but this new private school, made sure the have all the numbers where they can reach me or my husband and did not ask for a list of meds, although they do know she was very sick last term. We did not tell them about her disorder, as at the moment she is stable.
Not saying this is the best way, because it depends on the stability of the child what the teacher should know.

[mellowed]

I think the school needs to know in case of an Emergency. What if mom or dad get in a car accident and cannot be reached and your child is having a reaction, goes into a rage etc and the school has no idea what to do?

Worse yet, if they get into a fight for some unkwown reason and the police are called.

I like my child's school to know everything possible, so that when I need their help to co-operate with me on say the "no homework" idea, they will say yes to me. So far no confidence has been broken and I am truly happy with my child's school.