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?

I am a teacher. I work in a secondary school. Schools DO have a system as I already said.

If a child is not in a lesson at the start of the lesson they are late. It's a fact.

Pupils are registered for form time and EVERY lesson.

Not in lesson = missing learning time.

The reason for the late is followed up, and those that are late for the wrong reasons can then be dealt with.

In the OPs case they will be able to see that the child was at reception getting medication and the mark will be adjusted to reflect that.

Its right to put things formally in writing though. Now OP has a audit trail of what she has raised when.

I work in a primary school. We have the children's inhalers in every classroom and a spare by the office. Legislative advice by the government says that a child's inhaler should be immediately accessible by asthma sufferers and in high school, they should carry at all times. The school need to review their policy - it's not great...

Every pupil in secondary school should carry their inhaler on them. They can use it in the classroom if they need to.
Ideally they should keep a spare in the Medical office.
Every school should also have spare inhalers for emergency use.
This is the right of the pupil.
They should carry it with them at all times.

Take your child to your GP and get them to complete an asthma care plan for him.
keep a copy yourself and give a copy to the school.
www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/conditions/asthma/manage/your-asthma-action-plan

There’s a conspiracy. We’re all in on it.

Of course YANBU. Request a meeting.

As previous posters said, my kid has an inhaler with them, plus a spare one in the office. We also have a spare at home.

What if he needs it when he's away across a far part of the school grounds and needs it

OP. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean that to look super critical. Please though, actually speak to someone at school this morning. I work in a College, sometimes stuff happens and mornings get chaotic, I would hate to think that one of my students might die because I'd missed an email in the rush to fight public transport, get to my classroom and set it up for lesson!

The last three days (I work Mon-Wed) there would be a good few students emailing me about absences because we have a good load of freshers' flu amongst the students and their children, and so I might not read every one before first period when your child could be in my class and need his inhaler. Phone school and make sure an urgent message goes out to your son's teachers!

my grandsons inhaler is kept in the office but he is primary school

If he’s too young to have it on his person then it should be in his classroom.

It’s even worse imo to have them in an office in a primary school, despite the fact they’re usually smaller. At least in high school another teen can be sent to the office and given the instruction to interrupt any adults and tell them “X is having an asthma attack and needs his inhaler” and will likely reliably do that. Sending a 5/6/7 year old is utterly unreliable.

Its appalling that so many schools are still poor on this.

My child has one in the office and one on him at all times. The one in the office never gets used, obviously, it’s just their so that the school can tick a health and safety box. The GPs always bitch about having to provide a spare for the school - and rightly as it is a total waste of time and money.

@Madrid21 have you managed to speak to school yet. There might be a medical/medication policy on the school website. But school need to have updated their records and a plan put in place

I'd not be happy about the late mark. He was at school on time. At my DD's school the office would have marked her present if she was there and not able to be at registration at the usual time.

It's not accurate that he was late. He was present at school but in a different location within the school due to a medical issue. What if he had to stay at the office longer? Would he have been marked unauthorised absence and it assumed he was not in school at all? That is not accurate and a safety risk in the event of evacuation.

He needs an inhaler with him and a spare in the office.

He needs to learn to use it without a spacer.

The form tutor needs to respond much quicker to you - it's poor there was no response yet.

If it was me I'd be contacting the head of year for a correction to the registration that day and an agreed medical needs plan going forward for inhaler use.

If he was having a major asthma attack then the fact the inhaler is in the office could be fatal. So he has to carry it with him.

He was marked as late because he wasn't there at registration. That's an admin and h&s thing so it makes no odds what the reason was. He must be marked as absent if he wasn't there. A teacher can get in serious trouble for falsifying or inaccurately reporting registration.

He needs to learn to use it without a spacer.

Ventolin works better with a spacer, that’s why he was told to use it.

That said, mine don’t use the spacer in school. Like OP’s son, they’d be embarrassed by the palaver. They always keep their inhalers with them, with spares in the school office.

MART inhalers like Bufomix don’t require spacers. It’s possible that the prescription will change after the asthma clinic visit. Some people need both inhaler types though.

We leave one in the medical bay for emergencirs/ school trips and he carries one around with him. You can get small spacers on Amazon that come in a travel pack.

It’s not a waste if a child forgets their inhaler!
It’s great to have a back-up.

Hope you’ve had some success today. Just wanted to absolutely agree that he needs inhaler (and an appropriate spacer) on him at school. Very disappointed that the school didn’t know this.