Carmen,

You'll <sarcasm on> love <sarcasm off> the purpose of this form, because
it has absolutely nothing to do with what you and your child need.  The
form is to protect the school from accusations that they are permitting
your child, when purchasing a school lunch, to eat a nutritionally
"unbalanced" meal by substituting juice for milk.

Here in Florida, the school nutritionists depend very heavily on milk to
provide given calories and nutrition.  Take it away by substituting
juice, and they are not providing much healthy food at all.  There are
quite a few non-allergic children out there who do not care to "drink
their milk".  The school wants to keep these children from "cheating"
and buying juice instead.  The doctor's note is requested to keep the
numbers of these "cheating" children down.  The children who do not have
doctor's notes are not permitted to select juice instead of the milk
that comes with their lunch.  Unbelievably, they actually keep the
doctor's notes on file in the cafeteria!

I am fortunate that my child is (apparently) only lactose intolerant,
but of course our physician was willing to give us the note.  My son
would rather have his fingernails removed than choke down milk -
anything with milk in it tastes repulsive to him, and he is 100%
accurate.  (Except he acquired an unfortunate taste for American cheese
years ago, when new-hired day care workers forced him to eat grilled
cheese sandwiches or mac&cheese, even though I had standing arrangements
with the cook to fix frozen meals which I provided on those days.)

But the school does not care that my child subsequently does not receive
adequate amounts of calcium, fat, etc in the school lunch he is
permitted by doctor's note to purchase.  They are not directed to
provide meals to suit the nutritional needs of "exceptional" children.
So we're on our own.  (keep in mind that 30% of the children at our
schools are on free or reduced price lunch - the phrase oft quoted is
"for some of these children, this will be the only decent meal they will
get all day."  I suppose I can be glad for those kids, and continue
packing my son's lunch.  Sigh.)

Trish

> ------------------------------
> Today I received a form in the mail
> requesting a physician sign and verify Milk Allergy/Intolerance to make
> dietary substitution. [snip]  This sounds
> like they would try to provide a milk free alternative...I'm thrilled, but I
> also realize I might be being over optomistic.  Whatever...they're taking
> this seriously! Yes!
>
> Carmen Simon

Kathy wrote:
> Carmen,
> No offense, but don't count on it.  A classroom teacher is very
> different from the health nurse who is different yet from the food
> service staff.  You may get one to take you seriously, but I doubt all.
> I was a teacher and know all too well how most schools operate in
> confusion and denial in regards to allergies.
>