Medications
School Medication Policy
If you have any questions please feel free to contact the school nurse Patricia Black at (315) 416-1956. Please remember to fill out the appropriate medication administration form or no medications can be administered - no exceptions! Thank you for your cooperation.
Administration of Medication Form • Self-Medication Release Form
- Medication may be administered at school when absolutely necessary; however, the best policy is for parents to give medications at home and on a schedule other than during school hours. If medication must be given during the school day, New York State Regulations require the following: NO MEDICATION WILL BE GIVEN IN SCHOOL WITHOUT A WRITTEN ORDER from your child’s health care provider. The order must include the student's name, name of medication, dosage, time and dates to be given and the health care provider’s license number. The label on the medicine bottle is not sufficient.
- New orders for medication administration are required for each school year.
- A WRITTEN REQUEST FROM THE PARENT FOR THE SCHOOL HEALTH OFFICE TO ADMINISTER THE MEDICATION MUST BE PROVIDED. A permission form titled:REQUEST FOR ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICATION DURING SCHOOL DAY, is available that includes space for the provider’s order and signature as well as for the parent’s consent and signature.
- All medication must be in its original pharmacy container and label including over-the-counter meds as well.
- Medicine arriving in school in unmarked containers, baggies etc., will not be given. Please do not send aspirin, cough drops, etc. or other single dose medication to school with your child. These medications will not be administered without fulfillment of the requirements stated above.
- All medication should be delivered to the school by the parent/guardian and retrieved by a parent/guardian -- not the child. Parents will be contacted to make arrangements to pick up discontinued or unused medication. All medications must be picked up at the end of the year or they will be discarded.
- The school nurse is responsible for administering the student’s medication. When a school does not have nursing coverage at all times, the school nurse will determine if the student may be deemed self-directed. The designation “self-directed” allows the student to self-administer the medication with the supervision of a designated adult.
- If the child is unable to be self-directed, the child is then deemed “non self-directed” and the only person who can administer the medication in this situation is either a school nurse or a parent/guardian.
- STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CARRY ANY MEDICATION unless they have a written order for self-administration (a higher level of self-care and independence than self-directed) signed by both their doctor and parent. Students, who carry inhalers for asthma, may do so with permission included in the doctor’s order that states that the student is authorized to carry medication and “self-administer”.
The three levels of medication administration in schools:
Self-administration-the student may carry the medication and may without supervision, self-administer it. This designation however, must first be determined and ordered by a doctor and co-signed by a parent. A form titled “Self-Medication Release Form”, available from the school nurse, should be completed and returned to the school nurse.
Non-self-directed- students may not take any medication independently. This includes all over the counter meds as well. Only a school nurse or a parent may administer the child’s medication.
Self-directed is a designation that is used in situations where the school nurse is not present at all times. A student may take a medication while being observed and supervised by a specifically designated and trained adult --often the student’s teacher. Please note: The New York State Education Department in consultation with both the NYS Board of Nursing and the NYS Board of Pharmacy, deems that the storage of medications to be given to self-directed students in the absence of a school nurse, must remain in a properly labeled pharmacy container, in a locked medication cabinet, or in the possession of a supervising adult; until they are handed to the self-directed student to self-administer in the school and/or when taken on field trips or other school events.”
All Saints Elementary of Tipperary Hill • 112 South Wilbur Avenue • Syracuse, New York 13204 • 315-422-3140