Assessing the readiness of a school system to adopt food allergy management guidelines

The prevalence of potentially fatal food allergies in school-aged children is rising. It is important for schools to have a food allergy management policy and an emergency action plan for each affected student.

To examine the current status of food allergy guideline and/or policy implementation and adoption in a large school system in southeastern Wisconsin.

A 24-item anonymous electronic survey was developed and completed by school principals and administrators in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee School System (approximately 125 schools) in southeastern Wisconsin.

One in 4 responding schools reported no guidelines or policy. Schools that reported having students with special needs due to food allergy were more likely to have a local food allergy policy compared to schools that did not report having students with food allergy special needs (OR 6.3, 1.5-26, P = 0.01). Schools with food allergy guidelines/policies were 3.5 times more likely to require student individual action plans than schools with no guidelines or policies (OR 3.5, 1.00-12.2, P = 0.05).

Gaps in evidence-based food allergy policy implementation were found in this school system. Schools with food-allergic children with special needs were more likely to have guidelines/policy, however, they were not more likely to require emergency action plans. The majority of schools (66, 90%) reported interest in receiving further information or training on food allergy management.