The district requests to be notified when a student has been diagnosed with a food or other life-threatening allergy.  Please complete the annual Student Health Information portion of online enrollment to report your child's allergies.  If your child's health or allergies change after completing enrollment or during the school year, please contact the school nurse.

The following forms are required to be completed by you and your child’s physician.  These forms must be completed each school year in order for the school nurse to provide student-specific training to teachers and staff that interact with your child on a regular basis.  Please return completed forms to the school nurse as soon as possible. 

ALL students with known severe allergies should provide:

• Anaphylaxis Emergency Action Plan -Physician’s Signature Required, Prosper ISD form strongly preferred  

*Please note that if a different form is used, the parent/guardian will still be required to complete the parent portion of the Prosper ISD Anaphylaxis Plan.  Additionally, please note that the school nurse will convert the information provided by your provider on the alternate form to a Prosper ISD Emergency Action plan when distributed to school staff for consistency in staff training & response.  

If your child will need emergency medication at school, you should also provide:

• The prescribed medication(s), non-expired, and in their original container(s). Prescription medications must have the prescription label attached.

*Prosper ISD will NOT accept a student’s epinephrine auto-injector without a current school year Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan signed by a provider and the parent/guardian.

If your child has a severe FOOD allergy that requires a food substitution in the school cafeteria, you will also need to provide:

• Special Diet Form – Physician Signature Required

In accordance with Education Code 38.0151, Prosper ISD has developed and implemented a food allergy management plan.

Prosper ISD Food and Severe Allergy Management Plan

Allergy and Anaphylaxis information developed by the Texas Department of State Health Services can be viewed on their website, including the Guidelines for the Care of Students with Food Allergies At-Risk for Anaphylaxis.

Does Prosper ISD offer Allergen-Free or ‘nut free’ classrooms or campuses?

Prosper ISD is committed to protecting individuals with food allergies from exposure to their allergen(s). While many facilities or classrooms in other places may claim to be “peanut (or any other allergen) free”, this is in reality, a common misnomer. It is near impossible to control every aspect of a facility or classroom’s environment and be truly allergen-free. At school for instance, the district can't manage what students eat for breakfast. We also can’t control or even 100% monitor what students bring for snack or lunch -- especially if items are homemade. 

Prosper ISD is instead “Allergy Aware” and takes many actions to safeguard students’ health & safety. All staff are trained on common food allergens, symptoms of a reaction, and how to provide emergency care for someone experiencing symptoms of anaphylaxis. 

Here are some examples of additional things Prosper ISD can do to help protect those with food allergies:

• Teach students about food allergies.

• Teach the importance of not sharing food and reinforce that policy in the classroom.

• Plan lessons and parties that don't involve those foods. 

• Offer non-food rewards, like stickers or pajama parties. 

• Communicate with classroom parents and students about food allergies, and what they should avoid sending for snack time

• Have students eat snacks at their individual desks, wash hands afterwards, and wipe down their desks. 

• Supervise snack time. 

  • For instance, if a teacher sees a student with an obvious peanut containing snack in a classroom with peanut allergies, we can offer an alternative, ask the student to thoroughly wash their hands, clean the area, and then perhaps follow-up with that student’s parent about reminders of classroom allergies and request not to send that snack again.

• Have an allergy-aware table in the cafeteria where allergic students can sit (and bring a buddy) where staff can more closely monitor the limited food at the table for known allergens.  

• Have students wash their hands after lunch and before going out to the playground or back to classrooms

It's not that we're laissez faire about food allergies, quite the opposite actually! We're just realistic about what we can control, and determined to support and protect our students as best we can with the capabilities that we have.

References: 

Brożek, J. L., Bousquet, J., Agache, I., Agarwal, A., Bachert, C., Bosnic-Anticevich, S., Brignardello-Petersen, R., Canonica, G. W., Casale, T., Chavannes, N. H., Correia de Sousa, J., Cruz, A. A., Cuello-Garcia, C. A., Demoly, P., Dykewicz, M., Etxeandia-Ikobaltzeta, I., Florez, I. D., Fokkens, W., Fonseca, J., Hellings, P. W., … Schünemann, H. J. (2017). Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines-2016 revision. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 140(4), 950–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2017.03.050

McMaster University. (2021, May 5). New guidelines for schools recommend against food bans. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 25, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210505075043.htm

Stukus D. R. (2017). Peanut-free schools: What does it really mean, and are they necessary?. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 140(2), 391–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2017.03.037