Wow, what an interesting state.  

Anyway -  I have some news about my daughter's after school program.  It's not firm yet, since not all the parties have been notified, but I wanted to share what I've heard so far.  

Law: In Mass, non-nursing school personnel can give an injection in an emergency that is deemed to be life-threatening - which makes the Epi-Pen ok.  Oral medications can only be administered by a school nurse - which makes the Benedryl NOT ok.  I haven't seen the law, so there's probably a bunch of missing detail here. Seems that this has caused some conflict between the administration and the nursing staff long before I showed up.  

Solution: The school will provide on-call nursing coverage during the afterschool program.  They will fund it, staff it, etc.  This provides coverage for the other 37 kids in the program (including one other with a severe peanut allergy) which was lacking the last four years.  The on-call part works for me since emergencies are covered on-site, and the Benedryl is more a medium-term treatment.  I am usually less than five minutes from the school - but I can also be off-site, which is why other coverage is needed.  Phone coverage is immediate.   

I was speechless when the director called.  I had expected a fight from the admin.  I hope the school nurses don't kill me... so far we've been working together well.  


Lisa