Share your initiative/experience with children and adolescents in school!
🌍 Let’s share great ideas to improve the lives of children and adolescents with diabetes at school!
We’re gathering successful initiatives and experiences from around the world that help make school environments safer, more welcoming, and more inclusive for students with diabetes.
It could be a project, a protocol, a campaign, educational materials, a partnership with teachers, or any action — big or small — that has made a difference. Your experience could inspire others! ✨
We will try to prepare a summary of the contributions and present some of them at the Special Interest Group – Diabetes in Schools meeting during the ISPAD conference in Montreal, on November 7th, from 13:15 to 14:15.
đź“… Submission deadline: September 30
đź’Ś Share your ideas in the group. One or two paragraphs will do!
Together, we can build a network of ideas and best practices that will transform the daily lives of those living with diabetes at school. đź’™
Thanks for participating!
Eduardo
Created: 11 Aug 2025 01:08:44 PM
India has the world’s largest population of children with type 1 diabetes (T1D), and the numbers are steadily rising. With more than 1.5 million schools in the country, most teachers remain unaware of how to support diabetes self-care or handle emergencies, leaving children vulnerable during school hours. To address this gap, the IDEAS program was launched by a small group of pediatric endocrinologists, PDEs and PwDs in 2023, using and expanding upon ISPAE (Indian Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology)’s school resources to create interactive sessions, multilingual videos, and practical tools for teachers, parents, and healthcare professionals.
Program details:
• Monthly sessions: Began on 6th August 2023 as a 90-minute interactive virtual program for school staff. Conducted on the first Sunday of every month, initially in English and later expanded to Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, and Telugu.
• Challenges & Shift in strategy: Live monthly sessions had to be suspended due to logistical issues — mainly the difficulty of finding a time convenient for all teachers and the limited reach of one-time events. To overcome this, pre-recorded sessions in multiple languages were developed for flexible use. So far in English, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Hindi, and Hinglish. Telugu and Odiya on the way.
Resources Developed:
All the following resources are made freely available for download on ISPAE website. (www.ispae.org.in/diabetes-care)
• School diabetes management plan template
• Hypoglycemia treatment cards for quick reference in emergencies
• Printable educational pamphlets, recorded sessions & videos (QR code for each video for easy access)
• Competitive Exam preparation guidance: Practical steps and required documents for securing diabetes care provisions during exams.
• Inclusivity guidance: Compilation of inclusivity and disability guidelines from different national and international bodies, available for parents to use in discussions with schools when challenges arise. (T1D does not come under disability law protection in India yet)
Advocacy Achievements:
• Parent advocacy: Led to NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) guidelines mandating diabetes care allowances in schools and during examinations. Ongoing advocacy efforts are strengthening policy implementation and protect equal opportunities.
Engaging Healthcare Professionals’ help:
• Promotion through clinics: Pediatric endocrinologists and PDEs share IDEAS videos and pamphlets directly with families of children with T1D.
• School engagement: HCPs encourage parents to arrange meetings with school staff and use IDEAS videos and printables as training material.
• WhatsApp dissemination: Videos circulated widely via ISPAE and IDEALite professional groups for wider reach.
Way Forward:
IDEAS will continue to expand its library of multilingual, teacher-friendly resources while ensuring they remain freely accessible on the ISPAE website. Future goals include reaching more regional schools, strengthening partnerships with educators, and working together with parents to advocate for policy implementation.
Dr Sirisha Kusuma Boddu
Team Lead – IDEAS
Consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes,
Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Hyderabad, India.
In order to address the challenges faced by children with diabetes in schools, the Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Association, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health, launched the School Diabetes Programme in 2010. The objectives of this programme are to strengthen the care provided to children with diabetes in schools and to assist in early diagnosis by educating teachers and students about the symptoms of diabetes in children. Within the scope of this programme, numerous activities related to all aspects of diabetes care at school have been carried out to date.
In the 10th year of the School Diabetes Programme, a significant step was taken in our country by preparing guidelines for the care of diabetic children in schools in accordance with global standards. These guidelines were published in the Ministry of National Education Bulletin on 14 October 2020 and entered into force. This guideline stipulates that "in schools with children with type 1 diabetes, the school nurse, if available, or a relevant teacher, if not, should be assigned as the person responsible for these children, and this person should be provided with training and close cooperation with the family should be ensured." However, it has not been determined who should administer insulin injections to diabetic children, especially those of primary school age, in situations where there is no school nurse, and teachers have not been assigned such a task. In this situation, in many schools in our country, families (mothers) wait at the school gates to administer insulin injections and carry out other treatment requirements. However, it is observed that a significant number of teachers support families with insulin injections, blood sugar monitoring, and hypoglycaemia treatment.
Benefits of the School Diabetes Programme
The School Diabetes Programme is a problem-focused, realistic programme that is enthusiastically embraced by all parties. It is integrated with the programmes of the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health and is a unique programme within the scope of the National Diabetes Control Programme. It has been well received by many groups involved in diabetes, particularly teachers. The benefits of the programme are summarised below.
School Action Plan for Children with Type 1 Diabetes
1. Following the family informing the school administration or relevant teacher, a person responsible for the child with Type 1 diabetes's life at school should be designated. This person, ideally the school nurse, could be the class teacher/guidance counsellor or a teacher or school employee designated by the school administration if there is no nurse.
2. Ensuring that the family and diabetes team maintain communication with this person regarding all matters and issues related to diabetes.
3. Ensuring that the telephone numbers of family members are recorded in an easily accessible manner.
4. Ensuring that this designated person is trained in insulin injection, blood sugar measurement, type 1 diabetes and situations that may develop due to diabetes and require urgent intervention (especially low blood sugar), and that they are able to administer the drug Glucagon when necessary, with the written consent of the family.
5. Although not a legal requirement, ensuring that this designated person, with the family's written consent, supports children who need insulin injections and blood sugar monitoring and, when necessary, administers additional doses of insulin after consulting with the family.
6. Requesting a 'Diabetes Treatment Plan' from the family of every child with diabetes at the beginning of the school year (this plan will be prepared by the diabetes team monitoring the child and sent to the family and school) and sharing this plan with the relevant teachers and, if available, the nurse.
7. In schools without an infirmary, if the child and family wish, a room should be provided where insulin injections can be administered, and a refrigerator should be available to store a 'glucagon' kit for use in cases of severe hypoglycaemia.
8. Support should be provided at school regarding diabetes-appropriate nutrition.
9. If possible, a 'Diabetes Emergency Kit' containing fruit juice or sugar cubes, a blood glucose meter and test strips, cotton wool and plastic cups should be kept in the diabetic child's classroom.
10. In schools without a nurse, contact the nearest family doctor's surgery to ensure rapid intervention and support in emergencies.
Professor Dr. Şükrü Hatun
Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Association
Diabetes at School Programme Coordinator
Koç University, Istanbul