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Parent tells York County School Board 504 accommodations for child with severe allergies were not implemented
Summary
A Grafton Middle School parent told the board her daughter's agreed 504 accommodation plan for severe allergies to dairy, eggs and banana was not followed in the classroom and that administrative attempts to resolve the issue were unsuccessful; the board said it would follow up.
A Grafton Middle School parent told the York County School Board that a 504 accommodation agreed earlier in the year was not implemented by classroom staff, placing her daughter at risk of a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Tiana Antonidas told the board she requested a 504 meeting in May to address her daughter’s severe allergies to dairy, eggs and banana and that participants (the former 504 coordinator, a teacher representative and a board representative) agreed on an accommodation plan. Antonidas said the plan was not followed once the student began a Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) class. Teacher-level attempts to resolve the problem, she said, were ineffective and subsequent meetings with school administrators led her to understand staff believed the agreed accommodations were “impossible to implement.”
Antonidas said the situation escalated when she declined to sign a waiver drafted specifically for her daughter’s situation and, hours later, the teacher assigned a recipe containing every allergen relevant to her daughter. She told the board that emotional responses from staff were used to close out discussions rather than resolving alleged noncompliance. “No reasonable interpretation of that statement supports such a conclusion,” Antonidas said of the administration’s position that the student should prepare recipes at home and simply eat them at school.
School officials present said they would follow up. Chair acknowledged the concern and the board indicated staff would pursue a response. The meeting record shows only a promise of follow-up; no formal corrective action, timeline or outcome was stated on the public record during the meeting.
The board’s public-comment rules were read earlier in the meeting; the chair noted policy KDBDDH governs public comment behavior and time limits. Antonidas’s remarks cited specific staff (the former 504 coordinator, Ms. Swanson, Ms. Murphy, Mr. Bartley, Ms. Hofstetter and Dr. Carroll) and described multiple meetings and email exchanges between the family and administration.
The board did not make a formal determination on the record during public comment. Officials asked the speaker to continue follow-up with administration.
