How does your school handle allergies?

Where is your child's EpiPen?  Does your child carry the EpiPen or does it stay in the nurses office or does it stay in the classroom?  How old should the child be when he or she can be responsible for the EpiPen?

We review these questions every time we start a new school year.  Most likely the answers to these questions vary from child to child and with different Doctor recommendations and with different school policies and of course your comfort level as a parent.  Since we have moved a couple of times over the past few years, we have tried different things with different schools and as our child has moved through different grades.

For kindergarten, we actually had a hook placed near the classroom door to hang the EpiPen carrier.  When the class moved out of the room to another class, such as music or art, the teacher would carry the EpiPen to that particular class and hand off to the teacher of that class and the EpiPen would follow him wherever he went.  He did not carry the EpiPen himself.  This was a good reminder for a teacher who only saw my son one day a week that someone in the class has a severe allergy.

Now, we are in a new school and my son is a little older.  The EpiPen stays with the nurse and he keeps one in his backpack.  The EpiPen does not follow him from class to class anymore.  We are comfortable with this change, since he has a better understanding of his allergy.

What is your school's policy?