As a long-time food allergy mom, I’ve had 2 food-allergy kids and over 13 years of experience navigating food allergies at school. I’ve written a lot of posts about food allergies at school, but I haven’t shared specifically about creating a 504 plan for food allergies, which I know many of you are considering.
Here are a couple of things to think about as a starting point for a 504 plan for food allergies:
Will there be snacks in the classroom and if so, who will provide them?
Do the teachers know about cross-contact and how to avoid it?
Do the teachers and staff understand what a reaction looks like and how to use epinephrine?
Where would the epinephrine be kept so it’s easily accessible?
Although these questions are an amazing start, there are so many other things to consider when creating a 504 plan for food allergies.
Let’s dive deeper.
Sample 504 Plan For Food Allergies
In this post, I’ll help you create the best 504 plan for food allergies so your child can have a safe year making friends and learning without worry.
First here are a couple of important things to know.
I’m Corinna!
At the time of writing, I’m a 16-year food allergy mom and a 6-year food allergy coach. I base all of my resources on evidence-based research and then add my 16 years of practical knowledge to create trusted resources that work for you and other food allergy families.
We’ve experienced 13 years of school so far (from preschool/K- to grade 10). In the early years, it was all about learning how to educate teachers about my daughter’s allergies so that they truly understood how important their role in keeping her safe & included was.
My daughter and I before her grade 9 grad.
This isn’t easy, but I’ve come up with essential steps that I follow and teach to other families because they work! I’ve also been able to get our private school to start providing yearly food allergy training to teachers and staff when there was absolutely NONE before.
I’ve already helped thousands of food allergy families navigate the tricky world of school with food allergies with my resources and the School Food Allergy Plan Template (which can be used alone or as a starting point for a 504 plan for allergies), and my Food Allergy School Success Pack, which is only available when you purchase the School Food Allergy Plan Template.
I tell you all of this so you know that this post isn’t just a bunch of random tips from the unreliable internet. You can trust what you read here.
I also want you to know that real food allergy understanding at school IS possible, and although it took me many years to fumble through and figure it out; with guidance, it doesn’t have to take as long for you!
If you want to get a trusted, done-for-you sample 504 plan for food allergies without a bunch of research, I get it! The internet can be a huge source of information overload, especially when it comes to food allergies. So to make things simple and easy for you, here is a link to my easy, done-for-you School Allergy Plan Template.
**When you click the link above, you’ll go to the page where you can buy the School Allergy Plan Template and School Success Pack. I completely trust and recommend these products!
That said if you want to dive a bit deeper into creating the best 504 plan for food allergies, keep reading!
Does your child qualify for a 504 plan?
To qualify for a 504 plan, kids must meet the official definition of having a disability. A disability is defined as something that limits a major life activity. Eating is a major life activity, so there should be no problem with this. That said, you can help with this by getting your doctor to write a letter stating that your child’s food allergies limit a major life activity.
How To Start
Before creating your 504 plan for food allergies, you’ll need to contact your school first and then your teacher to get the ball rolling. The school will let you know if they have a 504 plan administrator, and if so, they will put you in contact with them. You will need to make a formal request for a 504 plan.As a side note, whether you do a 504 plan or not, you will want to meet with your teacher to talk about food allergies every year. I have an amazing blog post about how to write a food allergy letter to your teacher so they are excited and ready to learn more about how to keep your child safe and included.
Your next step is to organize a food allergy meeting where you’ll go through everything together. But before you meet, you’ll want to be fully prepared. Keep reading to learn how.
A big part of any 504 plan for allergies is your food allergy emergency action plan. This is the basic starting point that can’t be missed. Get a sample food allergy action plan that is easy to understand from Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE).
Once you’ve got that, we can answer a few other important questions.
Is An Allergy Classed As A Disability?
Simply put, yes, food allergies are considered a disability in the US and Canada. Maybe you don’t feel like your child has a disability (especially if they only have one allergy) but a food allergy IS classed as a disability. This is good news because it allows for more support at school.
Do I Need A 504 Plan For Allergies?
Essentially, a 504 plan is a legal document that the school is required to follow to ensure your child with disabilities is safe at school. It is used in the United States. In Canada, 504 plans do not exist, but I highly recommend making some sort of formal allergy plan with your school.
A 504 plan is a recognition of your child’s disabilities and helps you and the school create strategies to ensure those disabilities are managed safely when they’re at school.
In this post, I’m not going to specifically answer the question “Do I need a 504 plan for allergies?” because I feel like it is a personal decision. That said, here are a couple of points to consider:
I have never used a 504 plan for allergies. That’s because I’m from Canada and we don’t have them. Even so, I have found it essential to discuss food allergies with our school every single year. In essence, we have created a 504 plan for allergies, even though we don’t call it that. Because of this, what I have put into my sample 504 plan for food allergies is the PERFECT starting point as a legal 504 plan for food allergies. I know this because I’ve had several moms from the US try my sample 504 plan/template and tell me how helpful it is!
A 504 plan is NOT the same for every kid. That’s because not every kid is the same and not every school and teacher are the same. That’s why in my sample 504 plan for food allergies I’ve listed questions that help parents, administrators, and teachers work together so that they come up with the best food allergy accommodations together, based on the specific circumstances.
Now here’s a really important thing to know when you’re deciding if you need a 504 plan for allergies.
Whether or not you create a legal 504 plan, you will need to meet with your teacher EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. What worked for us is that we met with our Administrator at the beginning when my daughter started at the school (and at various other times) and then met with the Teacher at the beginning of every year. Our school didn’t have a school nurse, but if yours does, include them too.
I’m a big advocate of meeting with the teacher every year because they will be with your child THE MOST. They will be handling the day-in and day-out of everything. They will be “in the trenches” so to speak. Some teachers are amazing, but unfortunately, some teachers don’t take food allergies as seriously as they should, and either way, you need to take the time to inform them and educate them every year. Because you’re already having a meeting every year, it may just make it easier to create a legal 504 plan for food allergies while you’re at it.
If your teacher doesn’t take food allergies seriously, a 504 plan can help get them on board. Unfortunately, you may not know this fully until you’re a few months into the school year, so you might just want to do it at the beginning to be sure.
Food Allergy Accommodations
The food allergy accommodations are the ways that the school will make adjustments to make school safer for your child. When it comes to food allergy accommodations there are so many routes you can go, and each will depend on your individual child, teacher, and school.
My process for creating food allergy accommodations was to go through a day of school and painstakingly write down everything I could think of where allergies would be an issue. This was a time-consuming process, but by doing this, I created a template of questions that I could reuse over and over again.
The funny thing was that even though I thought I was being really thorough, it was hard to know how many things are actually affected by food allergies at school until you’ve BEEN in school for a few years. That’s why every year I would review my template and make changes as needed. If there was a problem, I would change the wording to make things clearer and easier to understand. Because of this, my template has now been refined for over 13 years!
If you want to use the exact template that I’ve perfected over 13 years, you can go to this page to get more information. You don’t need to endure 13 years to get the best 504 plan for allergies!
**When you click the link above, you’ll go to the page where you can buy the School Allergy Plan Template and School Success Pack. I completely trust and recommend these products!
Don’t be afraid to make “out-of-the-box” food allergy accommodations!
You need to know that there is still a lot of misinformation when it comes to food allergies at school. As a food allergy parent, you will need to do a lot of educating. Some teachers are better than others.
Unfortunately, sometimes people get stuck in old ways when it comes to birthday celebrations or other challenges faced by food allergy families. If you want your child to be included, you may need to make suggestions that are different from what everyone is used to.
An example is classroom birthday celebrations.
Many, many parents send in birthday cakes and cookies which can be really hard for food-allergy kids to miss out on. An “out-of-the-box” idea might be to have parents donate a “birthday book” to the class with an inscription honoring their child’s birthday.
Everyone benefits in this situation.
The teacher and class get a new book, and the birthday child feels special when “their” book is read to the class.
The KEY to food allergy advocacy at school is to find win-win-wins like this example.
Are all 504 plans for food allergies the same?
If you have a child with any of the top allergens, there is nothing additional you need to do for certain allergies, as long as you ask the right safety questions.
So a 504 plan for peanut allergy and a 504 plan for nut allergy OR ANY 504 plan for food allergies will mostly just differ based on your child’s maturity, development, and the classroom and school needs, but not because of the allergy specifically.
That said, there may be small considerations based on specific allergies, but if you have the right basic questions, you should be able to come up with the right food allergy accommodations for your child, no matter what the allergy(ies) are.
Sample 504 Plan for Food Allergies
My sample 504 plan for food allergies takes all food allergies into account because as I mentioned before, it includes a thorough list of questions that you can go over with your school to help you think about what will work best for all of you.
In fact, there are 10 pages of questions that will help you create the best 504 plan. That’s obviously too many to go through here in this blog post; so go to this page to learn more about my sample 504 plan for food allergies.
One Last Tip When Creating Your 504 Plan for Food Allergies
I want to leave you with one last tip as you create the best 504 plan for allergies. That is the importance of clear communication.
You will likely need to show teachers how important their role is in your child’s safety. Having clear expectations of everyone’s roles is essential. That’s why having a full list of questions like what I supply in my sample 504 plan is so important.
The sample 504 plan I created over 13 years will help you clearly communicate what is required so that everyone understands their roles. Don’t underestimate the power of communication and clear expectations for food allergy safety at school.
The Best 504 Plan for Food Allergies
Get the sample 504 plan for food allergies here. It’s the template I’ve been perfecting for over 13 years of navigating food allergies at preschool, and school. This tool will save you time and effort, while also increasing cooperation with the school and teacher.
It will make back-to-school time so much easier!
This template works for schools in the US or Canada, and it will give you confidence when it comes to creating a 504 plan. You don’t need to go through 13 years of testing to get your 504 plan for food allergies right, just use mine!
Here’s what a mom recently sent me after using it:
I have more testimonials from other parents who have used to too. You can go to this information page to see what other parents have said. You don’t need to endure 13 years to make school safer and more inclusive for your food-allergy child!
Do you have the right school supplies for food allergies? Go to the blog for the 9 essential food allergy school supplies I recommend.
Do you wonder if you need to train your teacher about food allergies? Go to this blog to find out why food allergy training is important and how to do it.
Food Allergy Kid’s Empowerment Guide
If you're thinking about school, you likely also want to prepare your 2-7-year-old for more independence. Get this free guide for a checklist of skills you can teach your child right away. Sign up today!
