Each time Sheri Hurdle sends her 12-year-old daughter, Imanni, off to school, the mother worries that her child’s severe asthma will act up in her absence.
Even with daily medication, a slight change in weather or exposure to dust can leave the child wheezing, hoarse or with uncomfortable chest tightening that requires an inhaler, nebulizer or other treatment. For years, it was up to Hurdle to make sure school staff had the medication and training needed to keep her daughter safe while she attended Walter S. Christopher Elementary School in Chicago.
But after a new state law went into effect Jan. 1, school staff is required to provide Hurdle and other parents the necessary help to control childhood asthma — the leading cause of absence due to illness in schools.
“It can be overwhelming and scary,” said Hurdle, an administrative assistant who attended numerous workshops and classes to learn about her daughter’s condition. “Now that she’s older and stronger, managing her asthma has become less intense, but nevertheless it remains a daily priority.”
Under the new legislation signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in August, all school personnel who work with students must be trained to handle asthma emergencies. School districts must adopt an emergency response protocol for asthma — similar to those used in the case of anaphylaxis or fire. And every child with asthma must have a written “asthma action plan” on file at the school to allow the most efficient and helpful treatment when needed.
“Asthma has been a chronic problem for a long time; it did not just rear its ugly head,” said Maureen Damitz, spokeswoman for the Illinois Asthma Consortium which lobbied to get the law passed. “But I think people are more aware that we need to change something.”
Some school districts — including Barrington 220, Naperville 203, and Chicago Public Schools — already had policies mirroring the new state law. But until now, there was no way to know which school districts were making such efforts. The new law also promises to provide health advocates with data on how many students across the state are reported to have asthma on medical forms required for admission, Damitz said.
In Illinois, nearly 14 percent of children have asthma, but more than 76 percent of those children do not have their asthma under control, Damitz said.
The asthma rates are even higher in areas with high populations of Latino or African-American students. About 20 percent of each population is estimated to have asthma, she said.
Without measures to require parents to report asthma to school administration, the condition — which is treatable through medication — is grossly underreported. Parents hesitate to report asthma for a variety of reasons: ignorance, reluctance to deal with paperwork, fear of being labeled, Damitz said.
In turn, the lack of awareness about asthma’s presence in schools can lead to larger problems. Health care costs rise when children with asthma are only treated through emergency visits; students with asthma miss an average of eight days of school per year. And, while rare, extreme asthma attacks can be fatal, Damitz said.
At Barrington 220, teachers began receiving training last week on asthma emergencies. New signs spelling out the protocol for recognizing an asthma attack and treating it are also posted in hallways at each of the district’s schools, said Eva Detloff, nursing coordinator for the district.
“I think it’s something that school districts have been aware of but I don’t think it’s ever been approached in this coordinated statewide manner before,” said Dr. Edward Pont, chairman of the government affairs committee for the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Now you’ve really got everybody on the same page, and it should do a lot of good for the children.”
The state chapter of the academy was among a list of 17 groups, which also included the American Lung Association, the Illinois State Medical Society and the Chicago Department of Public Health, which supported the law. Illinois is now one of 24 states that require schools to have emergency protocols for asthma.
With the new legislation, asthma awareness advocates hope to now move on to lobbying for further safeguards for children with asthma at schools, such as a state-wide policy that requires all school nurse offices to stock albuterol, the drug most often used in inhalers, Damitz said.
All of the efforts are a relief to Chicago mother Rashidat Akinbiyi, whose 11-year-old son, Elijah, has carried an inhaler in his backpack since he began kindergarten. While she has made sure to meet with school health officials each year to explain that Elijah has a form of asthma that leads to extreme coughing, it will be comforting to know other adults will be prepared to deal with complications, she said.
“If a child has an attack in the classroom, the teacher won’t be surprised and say, “What’s going on? How can I help?'” Akinbiyi said.
