Dana Portillo, the School Health Coordinator and School Based Dental Sealant Program Manager for Department of Health Monroe, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about new updates regarding back to school.
The new school year will be here before we know it and there’s some information parents should know.
Portillo said, “I think so far, most of the new updates are most impressive to those in school health who have to do the planning and coordinating and making sure that we have all the appropriate responses. So one of the things that is coming down the pike for our county is the short acting bronchodilators, which is a fancy word for albuterol breathing treatments for people who can’t breathe. So that is something that was put into law last year allowing schools to do it. It’s not required. But I do think that we are one of the first counties in the state that is actually having a plan for that. So I’m very proud of that, to have the Department of Health, the Medical Director, the school district, on board and getting that coordinated so that we will be able to respond to yet another emergency for anyone that we don’t already have medication scheduled for. So super excited. Another thing that is coming down the pike for school health is our response to cardiac emergencies. So before I became a school health coordinator or school nurse, I don’t think I realized just how many aspects of health that schools are prepared for. So we have the EpiPen program already in place, so if someone has an emergency and needs that we can do it even if you don’t already have a history of it or have a pin already prescribed to you. We have Narcan available if there’s a suspected overdose, now we’re going to have this albuterol for the breathing treatments, but we also have AEDs in all of our schools, and had that in place even before it was a requirement. It was a requirement if you had a school athletic program. But not everybody has that in place, and so we have been ahead of the curve all along. So we’re already in compliance with that, and we have that registered with our local EMS, which is as Florida statute. So we are doing good there, but we’re really also looking at making sure that the schools in general have more people who are trained and ready for any kind of a cardiac emergency. So that’s also some of the planning that we have going on this summer.”
Parents of students with medical needs should make sure the school is aware of everything their child might require.
Portillo said, “I can’t emphasize the importance of that enough. So when we’re talking about the medical orders, we’re talking about students who have diabetes, type one and type two, but especially the type one that is insulin dependent, people who have asthma, people who have known allergies, and especially allergies that require medication. So maybe you get a little sniffle when somebody’s out mowing the yard, and that has never caused you a medical problem. I’m not, I want to know about it, but I’m not nearly as concerned about that as I am for someone that has a peanut allergy, or has a known history of swelling and not breathing after a bee sting. These are things that we can’t always avoid, and so those are very important, but we do need to have those parents fill out the health history form. We can learn about history of medical problems as well as current problems, and make a plan to make sure that your child is going to be safe, and that we can educate teachers and other school health staff to respond appropriately and help prevent problems. Preparation is the key, as we know, for everything, and then making sure that the nurse does have medication available for your child and have all the orders and everything we need in place so that you don’t have to worry about health when your child’s at school.”
Immunizations are also something to think about.
Portillo said, “It is never, never, never, too early for that. There are certain vaccines that are required for all school students and it’s on our district webpage. It’s on the individual school webpage. It’s in the Student Handbook. That is on the webpage as well. Some people think about the four year old shots as being kindergarten shots, and that’s really not true. So I want to make sure that people know that when your child turns four years old, that is when that set of vaccines is due. So if you have a child who’s in preschool or daycare, those vaccines are required to get the 680 which is the approved state form for the Florida Department of Health, and that we all function by. So that is super important to be up to date with that. If you have a child who’s going into the seventh grade, they have to have a Tdap, that’s the tetanus diphtheria and pertussis booster, so your child’s already had tetanus shots going all along their last shot probably was at age four, but a booster is required for seventh grade, and as long as it’s given after the 10th birthday, it meets that need. So your child may have already had it. If you’re not sure, reach out to your provider. The School Nurses aren’t there in the summertime, someone could always reach out and ask me questions, and I’m happy to look things up, but your provider might be the easiest way to just reach out and say, hey, is my kid good for shots? Then make sure that the school has the record that they need. We can look up vaccines easily. So that’s not usually a big, big problem. What we can’t look up are the school health physicals, because we don’t have access to the computer programs that AHEC has, who I would say does the vast majority of our physicals within the schools, or certainly, we don’t have any connection to the computer programs of your local provider. So make sure that just because you’ve done it, that that copy gets to the school, or else the school doesn’t know whatever happened.”
What is Amnesty Day?
Portillo explained, “Amnesty Day is a day that we set aside in August before school starts. In this particular instance, it is August 6. It’s a Wednesday, and the hours are 8:30 to 3:30 at the three Health Department locations. So one is in Key West, one is in Marathon, and one is in Tavernier. That day you can take your child to get those required vaccines, and you don’t have to have an appointment already made. So it’s kind of your last chance catch up before school starts, so that you are not then trying to scramble, if your child gets excluded from school because they haven’t done what they have known about for months.”
HPV and meningitis are recommended vaccines.
Portillo said, “The HPV and meningitis are recommended, not required. However, the meningitis and HPV are offered with those recommended, like the Tdap booster. That’s the perfect time that usually they get all three, or at least offered all three. Then the meningitis booster can be given after age 16, and that meets all the requirements for colleges and universities. I do think is a great idea to have it anyway. But yes, most colleges and universities, especially if they have dorms, will require that. Some will allow you to wave it off and sign the fact that you acknowledge that you’re waiving it. But many do require that. There’s no out of pocket costs for any of those that are offered. I did my end of year review data information for my supervisor, and I saw that I went into the schools a total of 18 times, and that was throughout the Keys to offer up vaccines for both adults and for students. Not to say that to brag, but just to let that we do have offerings. We do our best to try to make it easier for parents, so that you don’t have to take a day off work, or try to fit something in, and that will continue, but we won’t have any more before school starts, and probably not until, I would say, the September time frame, whenever the flu shot becomes available, and then we can go out. But the required vaccines, we usually start those in the spring and I try to hit every school from Marathon down, and then someone else can address the schools in the Upper Keys, just for a geographic basis.”
Cardiac emergencies are also serious.
Portillo said, “When I think about cardiac emergencies in schools, you might think of someone who works in a cafeteria, or somebody who might be a little bit older and maybe they have a heart attack, which is never great at any age. What people don’t think about are the high school students, especially the athletes, who are in the prime of their health, and they look fantastic and sometimes they can have that sudden cardiac death, and that is one reason that we have the AEDs and for them, it’s not a plumbing problem. It’s an electrical problem, if you want to kind of break it down to your systems. Sometimes that can be a cardiac defect that was not caught at birth. One of the things coming down the pike, not this school year, but the next school year, is that any high school athlete that wants to participate in sports will have to have an EKG with their athletic physical. So it’s really interesting. When I spoke with AHEC about that they already have a plan in place. They are working with a program called Who We Play For. That is, I want to say, in Central Florida, perhaps and they are really providing more EKGs and making sure that people are trained to use them and have the appropriate people to read them, so that we can catch any problems and really prevent some big, big, big problems. So that’s an exciting thing. I also learned that if any child currently gets this physical and they have an abnormality or something that they hear when they’re doing their assessment, they already get that EKG and get a referral to make sure that they are cleared to play. They do have to have this physical in place before they can try out, before they can practice, before they can play. So be thinking about timelines. When the timing works out for your sport, make sure that you have everything in place, because your lack of preparation is not somebody else’s emergency.”
Another topic is House Bill 1105, which is about mobile wireless devices.
Portillo said, “There will be a lot about that in the school handbook, and the rollout about who can have a cell phone, when you can have a cell phone, those kinds of things. But I do want to mention that for our type one diabetic students, they have to have some wireless communication device. It may be a cell phone or it may be an independent monitor that would still require WiFi, or some sort of a cell signal. We need to make sure that parents are comfortable knowing that that won’t be taken away. But I would also recommend having a conversation with your child about being proactive and being able to say to, let’s say a substitute who may not know this, or to someone else that needs they interact with, who may not even know of their condition, just to kind of say, look, I have diabetes. I need to speak with an administrator. I need to speak with the nurse, just to make sure that they can advocate for themselves calmly, not let things get out of hand, but to know that we are aware of the laws, but we’re also aware of the people that sometimes the law can’t completely apply to.”
For more information, click here: https://monroe.floridahealth.gov/