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Board adopts policy to allow parent‑designated adults to give emergency steroid injections once training is available
Summary
The board adopted Policy 3425 to accommodate students with adrenal insufficiency; the director of health services said staff can serve as parent‑designated adults after 2–3 hours of training, but local training availability and volunteer uptake remain unresolved.
The Franklin Pierce School District board voted to adopt Policy 3425, which sets procedures for accommodating students with adrenal insufficiency and allows parents to designate trained staff volunteers to administer emergency steroid injections once local PDA (parent‑designated adult) training is available.
Jen, introduced as the district's director of health services, told the board that adrenal insufficiency can cause life‑threatening crises requiring immediate intramuscular steroid injections and that currently there is no local PDA training, so nurses must be on site when these students are present. She said PDA training typically takes "about 2 to 3 hours" depending on the provider and that the district would need to pay staff for training time and rely on volunteers.
Board members asked whether training could cover sporting events and off‑campus guardian scenarios; Jen said the policy covers events where the district is the guardian but not those where a parent is required to be present. Directors also raised practical questions about staffing redundancy (multiple PDAs per school) and whether cost or timing would limit participation. Jen said some trainings are offered in the evenings (for example, at Seattle Children's) or through local diabetes education groups and that the lack of consistent local offerings is currently the largest obstacle.
After questions, the board moved and voted to adopt the policy. The board directed staff to continue pursuing training partners and to provide information to directors about how many volunteers and training opportunities would be expected before full implementation.
