Birthday Policy

August 25, 2014

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I am writing to share with you that our school will no longer be celebrating student birthdays with the consumption of food. Our School Improvement Team, which is a committee that includes a variety of staff members and a parent representative, discussed this idea last year and asked that I communicate the team’s decision to you. Classrooms will continue to recognize birthdays, and will celebrate in a variety of ways, but will no longer do this with the traditional food treats that are associated with such celebrations. Your child’s teacher will notify you on how birthdays will be recognized during the year.

This change is taking place for a variety of reasons, first and foremost is due to student safety. It is estimated that between 2-4% of the population of the United States has food allergies. Eight foods account for 90% of all allergic reactions. They are peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, soy, fish, and shellfish. A recent study estimated that close to three million Americans have peanut or tree nut allergies. Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction involving the respiratory tract or several bodily systems at the same time. These foods are the most common causes of anaphylactic reactions. These reactions can come on suddenly and quickly spread like wildfire throughout the body. The number of students with food allergies at our school has grown tremendously over the past ten years. Asking our families to refrain from bringing edible treats to school for birthday parties, which may contain these ingredients, enhances the safety of those children who havefood allergies.

The School Improvement Team also discussed other factors such as the rising cost to families to provide such treats for an entire class, promoting healthy eating, and maximizing instructional time in classrooms for learning. Although these factors were discussed and important as well, please know that our primary concern was student safety due to food allergies.

If you have any questions regarding this, please don’t hesitate to call me at 226-2455 extension 1108.

Sincerely,

Rob Lupisella