Anaphylaxis is a severe and potentially life threatening allergic reaction.
Not all children and young people with allergies are at risk of anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is the most severe allergy and can relate to a wide range of foods, insect bites and stings, medications and other substances.
State schools take significant steps to ensure the safety of students who are at risk of anaphylaxis.
It is important that your child’s school is aware of up-to-date information about your child’s health condition, triggers or allergens and the support required. Provide your school with your child’s
Action Plan for Anaphylaxis. This is completed by your child’s health care team and signed by your medical practitioner. It includes information about responses required, equipment and medication.
The school will follow the
Supporting students with asthma and/or at risk of anaphylaxis at school procedure and
Anaphylaxis guidelines for Queensland state schools (DOCX, 2.6MB).
Schools implement 2 types of plans for when students attending their school are at risk of anaphylaxis:
- Anaphylaxis risk management plans which apply to the whole school and for school events held offsite.
- Action plans which are used to respond when a student is experiencing anaphylaxis.
School anaphylaxis risk management plans
Schools develop and implement an
anaphylaxis risk management plan (DOCX, 159KB) which takes into account individual student's conditions and apply actions to reduce the risk of exposure to allergens across the whole school.
The anaphylaxis risk management plans set out things schools will do to minimise students' risk of being exposed to triggers or allergens.
Schools cannot make claims that they are an allergen-free or nut-free zone. It is not possible to guarantee that there are no allergens or trace of potential allergens (e.g. food substances or insects) in a school environment; therefore, it's important to have a procedure in place to quickly provide emergency medication to students if required.
Schools can work with a State Schools Registered Nurse (SSRN) to develop anaphylaxis risk management plans for events held offsite or out of school time such as camps and excursions. This can occur in a range of ways, including onsite face-to-face and virtual formats.
All state schools are required to have at least one or more adrenaline auto-injectors (e.g. Epipen®) at their school in an easily accessible location to respond to emergencies.
While state schools have auto-injector (e.g. Epipen®) at their school, if your child is prescribed an auto-injector you must ensure they have one at school, which is stored together with their action plan. Talk to your child's class teacher or school principal about how their auto-injector will be managed at school.
Training for school staff
The department’s SSRNs provide training for school staff to ensure that they are confident and competent when providing support for students with anaphylaxis. The school is responsible for accessing this training, as required. Training may be provided in a range of ways, including onsite face-to-face and virtual formats.
It is
important that you:
- keep the school informed about any changes in your child's health condition and treatments
- provide the school with relevant medical authorisations and/or Action Plans (e.g. asthma, allergy, anaphylaxis)
- provide the school with medication that has not expired and is clearly labelled on a pharmacy label with the student's name, relevant instructions and dosage
- provide health support equipment and consumables as agreed with the school
- provide alert apparel (e.g. alert bracelet), as required.