A policy to be used on a voluntary basis to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools will be developed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretary of Education.

This is what is defined with the “Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2008, discussed in the US senate last April, 9, 2008.
The policy, to be developed in one year, will be a guideline for public kindergartens, elementary schools and secondary schools, and will address procedures to manage several necessary topics, including:

• what documentation parents should provide the school about his food allergic child;
• the creation and maintenance of an individual health care plan tailored to the needs of each student with a documented risk for anaphylaxis, including any procedures for the self-administration of medication by such students:
• communication strategies between individual schools and local providers of emergency medical services;
• strategies to reduce the risk of exposure to anaphylactic causative agents;
• the dissemination of information on life threatening food allergies to school staff, parents, and students;
• food allergy management training of school personnel, and the authorization and training of school personnel to administer epinephrine.

The Act is the consequence of the increasing importance of food allergies in public health, especially among students, and of the frequence of fatalities from anaphylaxis associated with a delay or a missing in the administration of epinephrine (adrenaline).

Source: The US Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2008