Legislation being debated by the Tennessee General Assembly would allow non-medical personnel to give insulin injections to diabetic school children.
The Tennessean newspaper reports the American Diabetes Association is lobbying state lawmakers for a measure that would allow teachers and coaches to administer the shots because not every school has a nurse.
In some cases, parents have to leave work and go to their child’s school to give the medicine. But the Tennessee Association of School Nurses cautions there is little room for error when giving insulin shots, and too much could send a child into a diabetic coma.
Similar laws, allowing school employees other than nurses, have passed in other states.