Appendix A: California Department of Education (CDE) K.C. Settlement Agreement and Legal Advisory
possible disciplinary action by the Board of Registered Nursing. As a result, diabetic students
have encountered difficulty in receiving insulin during the schoolday.
In October 2005, the parents of four diabetic students in California public schools,
together with the Association, filed a class action in federal court alleging that schools in the
Fremont Unified School District and the San Ramon Valley Unified School District had failed to
meet their obligations to diabetic students under federal law. ( K.C. et al. v. O’Connell (N.D.Cal.,
C-05-4077MMC) .) The defendants included the Department, the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction (Superintendent), the members of the State Board of Education (Board), and officials
of the two named school districts. Plaintiffs alleged the districts ’ schools had refused to prepare
Section 504 plans for diabetic students, refused to include provisions for diabetes care in
students ’ IEPs, refused to permit unlicensed school personnel to administer insulin when no
nurse was available, and improperly required that parents or parental designees come to school to
administer insulin. Because of these asserted violations of federal law, plaintiffs further alleged,
some parents were required to forego employment and some students had to adopt insulin
regimens that entailed less frequent injections, less effective control of blood glucose levels, and
greater risks to their health.
In July 2007, the plaintiffs in the federal litigation entered into a settlement agreement
with the Department, the Superintendent and the Board. The agreement required the Department,
among other things, to fulfill its legal obligations to monitor local education agencies ’
compliance with Section 504 and the IDEA and to resolve complaints of noncompliance. In
addition, and more importantly for present purposes, the Department agreed to issue the 2007
Legal Advisory (see ante, p. 2) summarizing the rights of diabetic students under federal and
BP 2006 – Provision of Healthcare Services
Page 29
Desert Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area (DMSELPA) (rev. 11/16)
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator