Diabetes Care in the School and Day Care Setting

D iabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood (1). There are 186,300 individuals 20 years of age with diabetes in the U.S. Based on 2002–2003 data, the rate of new type 1 diabetes cases was 19.0 per 100,000 children and of type 2 diabetes was 5.3 per 100,000 (2). The majority of these young people attend school and/or some type of day care and need knowledgeable staff to provide a safe school environment. Both parents and the health care team should work together to provide school systems and day care providers with the information necessary to allow children with diabetes to participate fully and safely in the school experience (3,4).