Disabilities in the workplace?

[Eeyores Butterfly]

This is a takeoff of the 504 plans thread. I mentioned that in some schools things like checking blood sugar or using a rescue inhaler may have to be handled in the nurse's office (mostly due to a lawsuit in which a student kept the inhaler in his locker, went to use it, and died. The school was found negligent because he did not have it in the nurse's office). I mentioned that as a student teacher even I am required to test in the nurse's office. This has meant that I have had to delay treating hypos or treat them blindly. I often can't retest so just have to trust that the glucose tabs worked. I pretty much never test during the day now unless I feel bad. Thankfully it's not dangerous as I am not on insulin or medication (at this time) but it does make working with some already challenging students that much more difficult. Several people mentioned it is discrimination (although I don't see how. I imagine that testing in the nurse's office would be seen as a reasonable accommodation.)

Here's my issue: I start a new job in the fall and don't want this restriction. There is a decent chance I will be on insulin or a low causing medication by them. Since my room is majority self contained, I doubt I will have breaks that I can use to run down to the office and test, which is what I do now. There will most likely be students in my room when I test and while I will be discrete as possible I can't guarantee they won't see it. I am quite willing to provide my own sharps container which I will keep locked in my desk or a cabinet (and I do not dispose of used strips in the classroom. I save them for when I get home and they go in my sharps container with my lancet). I have no clue how to address this issue with my new principal or when to address it. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Ms_Butterfly]

I'd say contact your local disabilities office/EEOC office and/or an attorney who works disability cases.

Public safety comes before reasonable accommodations, so that may be the issue you have. If you keep all your supplies in a locked cabinet/drawer and keep the key on you at all times, would they still have an issue? If you have to do it in the nurse's office, how quickly do they send you somebody to be in charge of your students while you're gone - quickly enough so you won't have a medical issue? Are you eligible for a constant glucose monitor? (I don't know much about diabetes.)

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'd say contact your local disabilities office/EEOC office and/or an attorney who works disability cases.

Public safety comes before reasonable accommodations, so that may be the issue you have. If you keep all your supplies in a locked cabinet/drawer and keep the key on you at all times, would they still have an issue? If you have to do it in the nurse's office, how quickly do they send you somebody to be in charge of your students while you're gone - quickly enough so you won't have a medical issue? Are you eligible for a constant glucose monitor? (I don't know much about diabetes.)

There are two issues with going to the nurse's office if I'm low: if I do end up on insulin or a low causing medication you can drop pretty quickly. Of course, in that case if I suspected a low I would treat immediately and then go test, better than passing out on the way down. The other issue is that if I am having to leave the classroom, I have reached the point where it is affecting my job. That is why I don't do it now. When I was first told of the policy my mentor teacher said that she could take over for me if I needed it, but I have been very careful not to allow this to affect my job performance. If I have to leave the classroom, that would be grounds for termination I would think since at that point it is affecting my job performance.

At this point I am not eligible for a CGMS. I would only be eligible if I were on a low causing medication, had hypoglycemia unawareness (inability to detect lows), and several other criteria. They are incredibly hard to get approved unless you are on a pump (many pumps include the technology with them now). It would be sort of overkill fro the situation I'm in now.

OT: I do get to wear one for a week since we are still trying to figure out exactly what type I have. I'm excited to do it.

 

[teachallday]

Once you have signed your contract with your new district, go down to district office and find out who the District ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Officer is. Have an honest and blunt discussion with this person.

This is your starting point. They will not fire you for meeting your medical needs. They are at higher risk if they do not help you meet your medical (disability) needs. Now, if your disabilities makes you unable to do your job (which controlled diabeties shouldn't), then you have a different issue. Having to check your blood sugar levels is not an issue making you unable to do your job.

If you are in a Self-Contained Special Education Classroom, then you will most likely have at least one aide in your room. It is possible for you to leave the kids with the aide and go test your levels. Over the years I have also done "field trips" to the office when I have to go there and there is no one to watch my kids. Considering my students this is an inconvience to the office staff and when I have to do this a lot, they are much more open to discussing option to prevent this in the future .

I am sorry to say this but it is much easier to get what you want or you need if you inconvience somebody else. You would not believe what I have managed over the years by just asking my students to interact with an administrator whenever they came into my room .

 

[bookwormde]

After years of the courts making interpretations that limited congresses intent, congress amended the law to more precisely indicate there intent so there should be no problem with this being covered by ADA anymore.

I agree with teachallday, this is a situation that the individual school is not trained to make decisions about. It is much better to go to the district find the ADA comlpliance person and “declare” your disability and see if they have any current ADA accommodations that will work for you particular situation, if not work with them to develop one that does.

Quit honestly there should be no problem with testing in the classroom, as long as a procedure can be developed to keep the supplies secure.

In my opinion it actually may provide a good discussion point, since your students all have there own challenges and serve as a good role model for minimizing disabilities impact on there lives.

The time delay of finding a replacement and going to the nurse’s office, puts your health at risk, being proactive and timely with testing when you “feel” there may be a concern is important as you know. I am amazed at how many time we get calls for diabetic crisis and it turns out the individual new they might have an issue but due to “social concerns” did not want to test immediately.

bookwormde

 

[LauraVV]

I agree with the others. Go speak to the HR person and ask for ADA accommodations. A great ADA resource is the JOb accommodation Network, which is an ADA resource.

http://www.jan.wvu.edu/

 

[BeckyScott]

I would imagine that the KC school district already has some protocol in place. It's a big school district. Not saying it'll be right, but there is probably a protocol already there. So you'll want to find out how they've handled it before. I tried googling info for you but the only policies I can find are for students. You could try contacting the KC American Diabetes Association "anonymously" and asking them if they know. At least you'd have a heads-up of what you're walking into.

Did you student teach in KC? I'm trying to remember.

I don't know if there are different policies for staff than students. I know DS's inhaler is in the nurse's office, but he still needs help with it, and thus far his asthma hasn't pulled an Emergency situation. But when they go on field trips, the teacher is in charge of it... so it's not required that it be handled by a nurse, legally, I guess... if they'll trust a teacher to dispense meds to students during a field trip, then I (personally) don't see why they wouldn't let a teacher dispense meds to herself in a classroom. As long as everything is secured...

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's actually Independence where I will be. I currently do my student teaching in a very rural district in Northeast Missouri. (The town just has over 500 people). As far as I know there are no other staff members with diabetes at this school, or at least none who need to or bother to test while at work so I think my current situation is a function of simply not having encountered this before.

 

[barkley]

Once you have signed your contract with your new district, go down to district office and find out who the District ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Officer is. Have an honest and blunt discussion with this person.

This is your starting point. They will not fire you for meeting your medical needs. They are at higher risk if they do not help you meet your medical (disability) needs. Now, if your disabilities makes you unable to do your job (which controlled diabeties shouldn't), then you have a different issue. Having to check your blood sugar levels is not an issue making you unable to do your job.

If you are in a Self-Contained Special Education Classroom, then you will most likely have at least one aide in your room. It is possible for you to leave the kids with the aide and go test your levels. Over the years I have also done "field trips" to the office when I have to go there and there is no one to watch my kids. Considering my students this is an inconvience to the office staff and when I have to do this a lot, they are much more open to discussing option to prevent this in the future .

I am sorry to say this but it is much easier to get what you want or you need if you inconvience somebody else. You would not believe what I have managed over the years by just asking my students to interact with an administrator whenever they came into my room .

an employer can't fire for this but they can withdraw the job offer even if a contract has been signed. i speak as someone who had to deal with this from an h/r perspective.

my former employer was rabid in following all of that state's and the fed ada laws-and would accommodate to the best of their ability. we hired a woman who did not disclose until after she accepted employment but BEFORE she reported that she needed ada accommodations. she presented her medical documentation and it became apparant that her's was an accommodation we just could'nt make and our risk managament would'nt let us retain her because without the accommodation her health and well being would have been at great risk. based on this it was entirely legal for my employer to withdraw and void the employment contract because at the time of signing the contract the signer KNEW that she could not safely undertake the duties and obligations of the job w/o the accommodations. the woman tried to withdraw her accommodation request (even got her doctor to write a new note saying she could go for a lesser accommodation) but because it was on the record that the doctor had previously said the accommodation was needed our insurer and risk managament would'nt permit it.

if it's a rural district you might want to see what they've got in place already (might not be common knowledge but procedures are in place). i was just filling out dd's highschool forms tonight for the VERY rural school she will go to-they've got a system thats impressive as heck-including special arrangements for parents/staff to have "emergency" reserve perscription and non perscription med storage plans for those items that are not normaly used at school but in the case of some kind of catestrophic emergency (roads impassable for people to leave the school i'm guessing) would allow for 72 hour supplies of those items for any person wishing to have them on site

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Sorry for the confusion. The district I'm in now where I have the problem is the rural one. The one I am going to is the first tier out from Kansas City and is pretty large.