advocacy
Ryenne Ayers
with her Safe
at School team,
including her
parents, principal,
and volunteers.
keeping a child in a classroom close to home
SAfe
AND
SuppoRteD
At School
»
Ryenne Ayers may be just a first grader, but for most of her life, dalton
elementary has been her home away from home in coeur d’alene, idaho. the
neighborhood school that her older brother and sister attended is only a few
blocks from her family’s house, and she knows just about everyone there. that’s why it was
frightening—even heartbreaking—for ryenne when, upon being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes,
she was told she’d have to leave the school.
ryenne, 6, was diagnosed in early 2011, while she was in kindergarten. her parents, stephen
and diane ayers, went right to her school to discuss the care she’d need. that’s when they
were told that the coeur d’alene school district didn’t have a full-time nurse on staff at every
school. ryenne would need to transfer to a “regional medical school,” where children with
diabetes, asthma, and other diseases that the district deemed “life-threatening” studied with
a nurse on hand at all times.
that news didn’t sit well with the ayers family. Both stephen and diane ayers are registered
nurses. they knew that with training, adults in the school would be able to help ryenne with her
diabetes care. however, idaho law says that schools may only authorize nurses to give children
injections at school (although parents may designate others to do so). yet three federal laws
