Do You Take Kids That Need Epi-Pens and/or Have Severe Food Allergies?

[spinnymarie]

I wonder if the loophole in the legality thing would be to offer to take the child, but require they pay for a one-on-one staff member (Which would be SO expensive)?

Actually, maybe that's not even legal. No idea. :confused:

That sounds reasonable to me!

[MarinaVanessa]

I wonder if the loophole in the legality thing would be to offer to take the child, but require they pay for a one-on-one staff member (Which would be SO expensive)?

Actually, maybe that's not even legal. No idea. :confused:

Nope not legal either. You can't charge a special needs person more because you need more staff. This expense has to be distributed equally amongst the other families equally, as in you can't charge a person with special needs or with a disability more than you do "normal" clients.

What you can do however is say that taking on a person with special needs will compromise the safety and care that the other children require because of the extra work involved from having this special needs/disabled child unless you hire on extra staff which would be costly and unaffordable for you and therefore you cannot accept the child. You can however require the parent to get another person to help their child when you are not trained/capable of caring for all of this child's needs. Typically however this means a professional such as a speech or behavior therapist if the child has difficulties talking or with behavior etc.

As a provider you must be prepared to have real reasons and proof as to why you decline the child. I would assume that a child with allergies would be extremely difficult to deny without crossing disability act regulations.

I had an interview with a family about 3 months ago and they told me their child had disabilities from the get go. Their child has visual impairments and was in a small wheelchair. I explained that I did not have wheelchair access but they assured me that the chair was small and light. I also mentioned that I had another special needs child enrolled and I scheduled an in person interview so we could talk about concerns. After speaking to them about her care I realized that she was still in diapers and that would mean that I would have 5 children in diapers in my care. This would be very time consuming. I was also concerned about not being able to take our daily walks. I had just bought a quad stroller because I wanted to go out for walks everyday and the one special needs child I had has trouble walking so I needed to upgrade from a triple to a quad. Enrolling an immobile child would mean we wouldn't be able to go on daily walks because I would need a 5 or 6 in-line seat stroller which would be really expensive for me or I'd have to stop taking daily walks. There was no way for me to push my quad plus a wheelchair. I explained that I did not think it would be fair for her or the other children if I enrolled her. The parents definitely agreed with me however and I referred them to a friend and they enrolled there. If there is something that you do as a program and that is jeopardized then you can be realistic and say no.

[spinnymarie]

Nope not legal either. You can't charge a special needs person more because you need more staff. This expense has to be distributed equally amongst the other families equally, as in you can't charge a person with special needs or with a disability more than you do "normal" clients.

What you can do however is say that taking on a person with special needs will compromise the safety and care that the other children require because of the extra work involved from having this special needs/disabled child unless you hire on extra staff which would be costly and unaffordable for you and therefore you cannot accept the child. You can however require the parent to get another person to help their child when you are not trained/capable of caring for all of this child's needs. Typically however this means a professional such as a speech or behavior therapist if the child has difficulties talking or with behavior etc.

As a provider you must be prepared to have real reasons and proof as to why you decline the child. I would assume that a child with allergies would be extremely difficult to deny without crossing disability act regulations.

I had an interview with a family about 3 months ago and they told me their child had disabilities from the get go. Their child has visual impairments and was in a small wheelchair. I explained that I did not have wheelchair access but they assured me that the chair was small and light. I also mentioned that I had another special needs child enrolled and I scheduled an in person interview so we could talk about concerns. After speaking to them about her care I realized that she was still in diapers and that would mean that I would have 5 children in diapers in my care. This would be very time consuming. I was also concerned about not being able to take our daily walks. I had just bought a quad stroller because I wanted to go out for walks everyday and the one special needs child I had has trouble walking so I needed to upgrade from a triple to a quad. Enrolling an immobile child would mean we wouldn't be able to go on daily walks because I would need a 5 or 6 in-line seat stroller which would be really expensive for me or I'd have to stop taking daily walks. There was no way for me to push my quad plus a wheelchair. I explained that I did not think it would be fair for her or the other children if I enrolled her. The parents definitely agreed with me however and I referred them to a friend and they enrolled there. If there is something that you do as a program and that is jeopardized then you can be realistic and say no.

Thanks for clarifying, this is what I was thinking, that you have to be careful, but that there ARE things you can do.