This is an open letter to Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee (or anyone in that Department who can effectuate meaningful change):
The Yukon T1D Support Network recognizes that for Yukon Government, K-12 education in a time of COVID-19 is challenging. We would like to take this opportunity to remind Yukon Government that for children who have Type 1 diabetes, the realities and burden of disease continue, pandemic or no pandemic.
In 2018 and 2019, our organization partnered with Canadian Paediatric Society and Diabetes Canada to recommend to Yukon Government a series of changes that schools can make to protect the health of children who have Type 1 diabetes. The response to these recommendations and subsequent requests to make significant, yet simple and effective changes to how Yukon schools support children with disease has been met with statements that speak to Yukon Government’s belief that their policies for schoolchildren with disease is sufficient.
It is not sufficient. In fact, the Canadian Paediatric Society gives Yukon Government a rating of ‘poor’ in their management of children with Type 1 diabetes in school. We want to remind Yukon that children who have life-threatening disease are particularly vulnerable to education policies, and this is heightened when policies are ineffective. Children with Type 1 diabetes, like all children with life-threatening disease, deserve policies that attend to their immediate disease-specific needs. This does not change during a pandemic, and may even be heightened as a result.
Minister McPhee, what are you going to do to change the landscape of disease management in school-age children in the Yukon? Please don’t say ‘maintain status quo’.
In kindness but with dwindling patience,
The Board of Yukon T1D Support Network