When Your Child Needs Medication or Medical Treatment in School
Attention: Parents.
For forms related
to taking medication or receiving medical treatment in school, click
here.
The New York City Department of Education and the New York City Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of School Health work collaboratively to meet
the needs of students who need to take medications or receive medical treatment
in school.
For your child to receive health care services in school, the appropriate
request and authorization form(s) needs to be completed by you, and your child’s
doctor must complete the required authorization form and submit it to the
school. A form needs to be completed each school year.
Below is some additional information concerning completion of these
forms:
- • Multi-Use Medication Form: To be completed only
when medication needs to be taken in school. A small photograph of your
child needs to be attached to the upper left corner of the form.
- • Provision of Medically Prescribed Treatment
(Non-Medication) Form
To be completed when medical procedures (for
example, bladder catheterization, postural drainage, tracheal suctioning,
gastrostomy tube feeding, etc) need to be performed at school. This form may
be used for all skilled nursing treatments.
- • Request for Educational Service(s) Form
To be
completed when special services (e.g., barrier-free building, elevator use,
testing modification, etc.) are needed. This form should NOT be used to
request occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language therapy,
counseling, and other related services; these needs are identified and
addressed in a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).
- • The physician completing the form should be the one who will be
providing ongoing care.
- • A NYS license number must be provided by the
physician. If a physician-in-training without a license number
completes the form, it must be counter-signed by a supervisor (for example, an
attending physician) and include the supervisor’s license number.
- • The physician’s order must be specific and clearly written. If
there are questions about the order, an OSH staff member will contact you for
clarification.
- • Only those services that must be performed during school hours
should be requested. For example, if medication can be given at home before or
after school hours, the Multi-Use Medication Form should not be
completed.
- • Please note that medication is typically stored in a locked cabinet
in a designated medical room unless the student is authorized to carry
medication in school.
- • Parents, physicians, school staff and students need to work
together to encourage each child to be as self-sufficient as possible. Most
students at the intermediate- and high-school level should be self-directed in
taking medications (they can identify that the medication is the correct one;
identify what the medication is for; determine that the correct dosage or
amount is being administered; identify when the medication is needed during
the school day; and describe what will happen if it is not taken). If a child
is able to self-administer, the parent should initial the appropriate area on
the back of the medication form.
- • Students who are authorized to self-administer medication at school
are only permitted to carry the identified medication(s). Students are
never permitted to carry controlled substances.
Please contact your child’s school, and speak with the nurse or the 504
coordinator if you have any
questions.
