Late marks for needing to take inhaler

[Madrid21]

My DS has recently started year 7 and at the weekend he had an astma attack triggered by a virus he'd had for a few days, we ended up in A&E and after salbutamol and steroids he started to improve and was sent home to recover (we're waiting on a referral to the astma clinic). On Tuesday he went back to school still needing to take the blue inhaler on occasion. I'd emailed his tutor on the Monday to ask what the procedure is for taking medication to school, I still haven't had a reply. Today I checked the app and saw that he had red late marks, I asked DS why and he said he'd needed to go to the office to take his inhaler, he'd told the teacher he was at the office. He's now worried about needing to take the inhaler as if he gets anymore red marks this week he will get a detention. I'm not sure if/who I should contact at school tomorrow?

AIBU to think that school should allow him to take his inhaler when he needs it without being punished for lateness?

Attendance register is a statement of fact, needs to monitor correct attendance, safeguarding purposes and fire safety. Child was marked late beacuSe they were late, not for a punishment.

There should be some way of the pastoral care/first aider recording who is with them at registration time.

If they've fallen over on the way in, letting them bleed all over the place so that they get to registration on time, seems rather counter productive.

If you are not where you are meant to be when you are meant to be, you are absent. How do I know - from my classroom in another building - that Bob is on site?

I don't. I cannot mark a child present who I cannot see. That's safeguarding 101.

That makes sense, I think i probably just need to try again to reach someone at school to clarify to DS.

They actually dont have a school nurse on site, quite a change from when I was at school. He does know know how many puffs to take etc. but def need to try and speak to someone at school tomorrow. Hopefully we will get an appointment through soon to the astma clinic and I will make sure we get a plan.

In terms of registers and calling home for absence it's usually based on the tutor register at the start of the day, or lesson 1 if the school doesn't do tutor time. As schools lack support staff it's likely that those in charge of attendance are also the office where the inhaler currently is so if he was getting to school and needing it immediately and therefore absent for tutor they would know why.

Usually tracking lateness throughout the day is more a case of internal monitoring - who is always late, is there a pattern, where are they going? And as already mentioned a note is often given to give to the teacher which may say why they are late or just be signed by the teacher as it's something confidential, so if he is going to the office then I don't think he would be getting detention.

Fire safety doesnt make sense, the child is in the building. Is there a register of children who are in the office or corridor or something, or a swipe in to the main building?

So if the child isnt marked as being in the building somewhere, how does anyone know the child is in the building?

I totally agree, the late marks mean hes been docked behaviour points which hes worked hard for in this circumstance it just doesn't seem fair

Marked late is in the building but late. It's only a short window of time

I realise it may be different in different parts of the UK, but the asthma clinic appointment my DD had after being in A&E with an asthma attack was a long time later, at least a couple of months. That's why I recommended seeing the asthma nurse at your GP's in the meantime.

I mean the inbetween time. Say the lesson starts at 830, but the child arrives in the classroom to be marked late at 9am. He is in the office between 830 and 9 queueing up to get someones attention/wait for them to finish with the student in front of him/wait for them to end their phone call - whatever. But he is in the building for half hour before being marked in as present.

Thats the system I remember from school, DS's is quite different, they have an app and if they are late for any lesson throughout the day they get red marks which dock behaviour points and apparently lead to a detention.

He can’t ’get there quickly’ if he’s having an asthma attack can he!!!

And really some of these bloody responses to the OP are dreadful.

I did think that, I'll ask at the GPS and see if thats a possibility.

I realise that!! I was explaining thats what my son thought, not my opinion on it, i think he got confused about where to keep it.

Sounds good. Most children with asthma need more than just Ventolin. I believe if you're taking Ventolin more than 2x a week except for exercise then your asthma isn't well controlled.

I’d go and have a calm chat with them.

It may be that he can have an inhaler on him.

It may be that the late mark is just a factual thing that happens to show up red. He hasn’t been given a detention or similar by what you say so it doesn’t sound like he’s in trouble.

My sons inhaler is kept in the school office.

Thats my plan for tomorrow plus he can take in his extra from home to have in him and ask his tutor in the morning what to do.

Kindly OP I think you need to be a little more pro-active here. When you email your child's school it probably goes to either the overworked teacher that you sent it to, or to a general mailbox (if a general email) which is loosely monitored by overworked admin staff.

Your child is not safe in school without proper, easy, safe access to his inhaler when he needs it AND he bloody well deserves to be able to use it without black marks or detentions for being late. You absolutely need to phone the school and ask to speak to someone who

• knows where the inhaler can be that your son will ALWAYS be able to get it as soon as he needs it
• make sure that if he is late to registration or lessons because he has used his inhaler he will not get late marks/or detentions or anything from any teacher. There should be a procedure where whoever oversees medication being taken or used, lets the student's teachers know where they were.

Don't wait for a reply to an email when it could put you child's health in jeopardy!

This only happened today, so obviously I haven't had chance to contact the school yet, as I only realised what had happened this evening. im horrified anyone would suggest im putting my children's health in jeopardy!

That's pretty concerning, unless he is very very young and there is a rock solid plan in place to get the inhaler to him immediately if required

Unless your child spends his day in the office this shouldn’t happen. Not even in a small school should the only inhaler be in the office.

As a child who had an asthma attack when the school office was locked as one of the staff was on lunch and the other had to take an urgent message to another part of the school I really would urge you not to allow this to be the case going forward. It’s the most terrifying 5 minutes of my life (and I had extremely abusive parents so fear wasn’t new) and I had to be taken to hospital as by the time I got my inhaler I couldn’t take it well.

It’s downright dangerous. Schools should know better than this, after 20+ years working in schools and seeing the campaigns about this it’s so frustrating how complacent (and in some cases ignorant) many schools are about asthma.

Email the teachers who marked him late and explain your concern. It may be that they have to mark it late, but can choose a reason like medical. It should be a record for fire safety rather than behaviour, with pastoral concerns logged separately.