Sending a child with food allergies to school can feel like navigating a minefield. While you’ve carefully controlled their environment at home, school introduces countless variables beyond your direct control—shared cafeteria tables, classroom birthday celebrations, science experiments using food, art projects with potential allergens, and the well-meaning but sometimes uninformed actions of teachers, staff, and other students. For Wisconsin parents, understanding how to effectively manage food allergies within the school environment isn’t just about peace of mind—it’s about keeping children safe while allowing them to fully participate in educational and social experiences.
Wisconsin schools vary widely in their allergy awareness and management practices. Some districts have comprehensive protocols and trained staff, while others are just beginning to understand the seriousness of food allergies. According to FARE, more than 500,000 Wisconsinites — including nearly 95,000 children — live with food allergies. Regardless of your school’s current practices, proactive parent involvement makes a critical difference in creating a safe environment for your food-allergic child. If you’re unsure where to begin, our team at Wisconsin Food Allergy can help you build a school safety plan.
The Importance of School Allergy Planning
Comprehensive planning before the school year begins lays the foundation for a safe and successful year. Without proper preparation, even well-intentioned schools may inadvertently create unsafe situations for allergic students.
Understanding risk zones
Schools contain multiple high-risk areas where allergic children face potential exposure. Identifying these zones helps focus prevention efforts where they matter most.
The cafeteria presents perhaps the most obvious risk. Children eat together at shared tables, food is traded and shared despite rules against it, and cross-contamination can occur through shared serving utensils, residue on tables, or food spills. In Wisconsin schools where hot lunch programs serve milk with most meals and peanut butter is a protein staple, these risks are particularly relevant for children with dairy or peanut allergies.
Classrooms also pose significant risks, sometimes in unexpected ways. Snack times, birthday and holiday celebrations, cooking activities, and classroom rewards often involve food. Art supplies may contain milk proteins or wheat paste. Science experiments might use eggs or other allergens. Even math lessons occasionally incorporate food for counting or measuring activities.
Buses present unique challenges. The enclosed space, limited supervision, and social dynamics among students create environments where food sharing and bullying around allergies can occur. Food residue on seats from previous passengers can cause reactions in highly sensitive children. Wisconsin’s long bus routes in rural areas mean extended exposure times without immediate access to medical care.
Playgrounds and gymnasiums where children engage in physical activity after eating pose particular danger. Exercise can trigger or worsen allergic reactions in children who have recently consumed allergens, a phenomenon called food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis. Recess immediately following lunch requires special attention in allergy management plans.
Field trips and special events — from visits to local farms and factories to overnight camping trips — take children into less controlled environments where allergen exposure risk increases. These situations require advance planning, clear communication with chaperones, and sometimes difficult decisions about whether participation is safe.
School sporting events, music performances, and after-school activities often involve food — team snacks, concession stands, cast parties, fundraisers. These less formal school activities sometimes receive less attention in allergy planning despite presenting real risks.
Understanding these risk zones allows parents and schools to develop targeted strategies for each setting, rather than attempting generic approaches that may miss situation-specific hazards. Our downloadable school safety checklist can help you map and address each of these zones
Legal protections
Wisconsin parents should understand the legal framework protecting children with food allergies in schools. These protections ensure children receive necessary accommodations without discrimination.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provide federal protections for students with disabilities, which can include life-threatening food allergies. Under these laws, schools receiving federal funding must provide reasonable accommodations that allow allergic students to access education safely and equally. FARE’s Know Your Rights resources provide a comprehensive breakdown of these protections for food-allergic students.
For students with food allergies, 504 Plans document specific accommodations the school will provide. These individualized plans might include allergen-free seating in the cafeteria, permission to carry epinephrine auto-injectors at all times, modified food-related classroom activities, and staff training on allergy management. The 504 Plan is a legally binding document that schools must follow.
Some students with food allergies may qualify for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) if their allergies affect educational performance or if they have other conditions requiring special education services. IEPs are more comprehensive than 504 Plans but are reserved for students meeting specific criteria under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Wisconsin state law also addresses food allergies in schools. State statutes require school districts to adopt policies for managing students with life-threatening allergies, including procedures for preventing exposure, responding to allergic reactions, and training staff. However, implementation and comprehensiveness of these policies vary by district.
The state has stock epinephrine legislation — Wisconsin Statute § 118.2925 — allowing schools to maintain emergency epinephrine for use when a student experiences anaphylaxis but doesn’t have their own auto-injector available, or when someone without a known allergy has a first-time severe reaction. This law has since been updated and expanded under “Dillon’s Law,” which now allows Wisconsin schools to stock all FDA-approved forms of epinephrine delivery, including future nasal spray and sublingual options, providing crucial backup protection.
Parents should familiarize themselves with both federal protections and Wisconsin-specific laws. When schools resist implementing necessary accommodations, understanding legal rights helps parents advocate effectively. However, collaborative partnership with schools usually produces better outcomes than adversarial approaches, and most Wisconsin schools genuinely want to keep students safe once they understand the risks and necessary precautions. Speaking with a board-certified allergist like Dr. Ringwala can help you gather the medical documentation schools need to implement proper accommodations.
Preparing an Effective Allergy Action Plan
A comprehensive, written allergy action plan serves as the roadmap for school staff responding to allergic reactions. This document must be clear, specific, and immediately accessible when emergencies occur.
Written documentation
The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan — often simply called the Allergy Action Plan — should be completed by your child’s allergist and reviewed with school staff before the school year begins. The AAAAI provides standardized allergy action plan templates and back-to-school resources that both parents and staff can reference. This standardized form includes a photograph of the child for easy identification, lists specific allergens, describes symptoms of allergic reactions at varying severity levels, and provides step-by-step treatment instructions.
The plan must clearly differentiate between mild-to-moderate reactions and severe reactions requiring epinephrine. Many plans use a two-column format: one column lists symptoms and treatments for mild reactions (antihistamines, observation), while the other addresses severe symptoms requiring immediate epinephrine administration and emergency medical services.
Specific details matter enormously. Rather than vaguely stating “may have milk allergy,” the plan should specify “severe IgE-mediated milk allergy, history of anaphylaxis with milk exposure.” Instead of general instructions, it should state exactly which antihistamine to give, at what dose, and when to administer it. Epinephrine instructions must specify the exact device brand (EpiPen, Auvi-Q, or generic), dose (0.15mg for children under 66 pounds, 0.3mg for those over), and location where devices are stored.
Contact information must be comprehensive and current. The plan should include parent/guardian cell phones and work numbers, alternative emergency contacts when parents aren’t reachable, and the allergist’s office contact information. For families in Wisconsin, Ringwala Allergy & Asthma is available across four locations including Kenosha, Franklin, and Oshkosh to assist with documentation and action plan development.
Wisconsin parents should provide multiple copies of the allergy action plan — one for the school nurse’s office, one for the classroom, one for the cafeteria, and copies for any location where the child regularly spends time (art room, music room, gymnasium). Plans should also accompany the child on field trips.
The plan must be updated annually or whenever there are changes in the child’s allergy status, emergency contacts, or medications. [Download our printable school allergy planning guide to stay organized across each school year.](internal: /faq)
Including the child’s photograph on the action plan is particularly important in larger schools or situations where staff may not know every student by name. In an emergency, when minutes matter, visual identification helps ensure the right child receives appropriate treatment quickly.
Emergency steps
The emergency response section of the allergy action plan must be unambiguous and action-oriented. Clear, numbered steps remove guesswork when staff are managing a frightening situation.
A well-designed plan typically follows this structure for severe reactions:
Step 1: Immediately give epinephrine auto-injector to outer thigh (can be given through clothing). Note exact time epinephrine was administered.
Step 2: Call 911. State that a student is having a severe allergic reaction and has received epinephrine. Provide school address and specific location within building.
Step 3: Contact parent/guardian at provided numbers.
Step 4: Position student lying down with legs elevated (unless having trouble breathing, in which case allow them to sit upright). Do not allow student to stand or walk.
Step 5: If symptoms do not improve or worsen after 5-10 minutes, administer second epinephrine auto-injector if available.
Step 6: Someone must stay with student until emergency medical services arrive. Do not leave student alone.
Step 7: Send epinephrine auto-injector(s) used with student to hospital so emergency department staff know exactly what was administered.
For mild-to-moderate reactions, the plan should similarly provide clear steps: give specified antihistamine, observe for a set period of time, call parent, escalate to epinephrine if symptoms progress to severe category.
Many plans also include a “do not” section: do not assume a reaction will resolve on its own; do not wait to see if symptoms improve before treating; do not transport the student to hospital yourself — wait for the ambulance.
Critical guidance: when in doubt, give epinephrine. The plan should state this explicitly. There’s no harm in giving epinephrine to someone not having anaphylaxis, but failing to give it during true anaphylaxis can be fatal. FARE and leading medical organizations strongly support erring on the side of caution when it comes to epinephrine administration.
Communicating with School Staff
Even the best allergy action plan is ineffective if school staff don’t understand the child’s needs, recognize symptoms, and know how to respond. Proactive communication builds understanding and preparedness.
Teachers
Classroom teachers spend the most time with your child and are often first to observe symptoms during a reaction. They need comprehensive understanding of your child’s specific allergies, potential exposure sources, and emergency procedures.
Schedule a meeting with your child’s teacher before school starts or in the first week. Bring the allergy action plan and discuss it in detail. Don’t assume teachers understand food allergies — many have received minimal training and may not grasp the seriousness. Explain your child’s specific allergens and that even trace amounts can trigger reactions in severe allergies.
Help teachers understand that allergic reactions can happen even without directly eating allergens. Cross-contact from shared surfaces, allergen residue on hands that then touch the allergic child, or airborne particles in some cases can cause reactions.
Discuss classroom-specific concerns. If the teacher traditionally uses food for teaching activities, offer alternative suggestions. For holidays and birthdays, explain your policies. According to research published in PMC on school food allergy management, many Wisconsin classrooms are moving toward non-food celebrations given the increasing prevalence of food allergies.
Provide information about where epinephrine is stored and ensure the teacher knows how to access and administer it. Some schools require teachers to carry auto-injectors for at-risk students during classroom activities.
Address social and emotional aspects. Food-allergic children sometimes face teasing, exclusion, or bullying related to their allergies. FARE data shows children with food allergies are twice as likely to be bullied than their peers. Teachers who understand these dynamics can foster inclusive classroom cultures where allergies are normalized rather than stigmatized.
Discuss field trips well in advance. Your child’s participation shouldn’t be automatically restricted, but safety measures must be in place — epinephrine must accompany the class, supervising adults must know about the allergy and emergency procedures, and food exposure at destinations must be considered.
Cafeteria teams
Lunchroom managers, cafeteria workers, and monitors directly handle the situations where food allergy risks are highest. These staff members need specific training and clear protocols for allergy management in the cafeteria setting.
Meet with cafeteria leadership to discuss your child’s allergens. Many schools accommodate allergies by designating allergen-free tables where children with allergies sit together, surfaces are cleaned thoroughly before lunch, and allergen-containing foods aren’t permitted. While some families appreciate this separation, others feel it stigmatizes their children. Discuss options that work for your family.
If your school offers hot lunch, review ingredient information for menu items. Many Wisconsin schools use standardized menus from food service companies, which may provide allergen information. However, ingredients can change, and recipes at individual schools might vary. Some parents prefer packing lunch daily to maintain control over what their child eats.
Ensure cafeteria monitors understand your child’s allergies.
Address hand-washing protocols. Children should wash hands before and after eating to remove allergen residue. The CDC Voluntary Guidelines for Managing Food Allergies in Schools recommend that cafeteria tables be cleaned with soap or all-purpose cleaner between lunch periods, not just wiped with dry cloths that spread allergen residue.
If your child’s class has recess immediately after lunch, this presents specific concerns. Food residue on hands or faces can transfer to playground equipment, and exercise after eating increases reaction risk.
Coaches
Physical education teachers, coaches, and after-school activity supervisors also need allergy awareness, especially understanding the relationship between food allergies and exercise.
Inform coaches about your child’s allergies even if food seems unrelated to sports activities. Team snacks, post-game celebrations, and fundraisers often involve food. Coaches should know what your child can and cannot safely consume.
Explain food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis — reactions that occur when exercise happens within several hours of eating allergens, or sometimes when exercise occurs shortly after eating any food in highly sensitive individuals. This is one of several allergy-exercise relationships that Dr. Ringwala can walk through with families at a consultation.
Ensure coaches know where epinephrine is stored during practices and games, and verify they’re trained in recognizing symptoms and administering epinephrine if needed. Athletic activities often occur away from the nurse’s office, so having auto-injectors at sports facilities is essential.
The AAAAI’s back-to-school allergy resources include specific guidance for athletic staff and coaches that you can share directly with your child’s coaches as a starting point.
Safe Snacking and Meal Strategies
What your child eats at school, and how food is handled, directly impacts their safety. Developing practical strategies for meals and snacks reduces risk while allowing your child to eat adequately.
Avoiding cross-contact
Cross-contact — when allergen residue transfers from one food or surface to another — is one of the most common causes of accidental reactions at school. Understanding how cross-contact occurs helps prevent it.
Common cross-contact scenarios in schools include shared utensils in cafeteria lines, residue left on lunch tables from previous lunch periods, shared snacks passed around during the day, and microwaves where residue from previously heated foods can transfer to subsequently microwaved items.
Teaching your child to never share food with classmates, no matter how certain they are it’s safe, is critical. For classroom celebrations involving food, some families prefer to provide pre-packaged, safe treats for their child rather than relying on store-bought or homemade items from other families.
Label reading
Federal law requires that foods containing any of the nine major allergens — milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame — must clearly declare these allergens on labels. However, precautionary statements like “may contain” or “processed in a facility that also processes” are voluntary and not standardized.
Teach children to look for their specific allergens in two places: the ingredient list and the “Contains” statement. If either lists their allergen, the food isn’t safe. Emphasize the “when in doubt, go without” principle. If a label is unclear, damaged, or missing, children should decline the food.
For Wisconsin children, recognizing regional and common foods is part of label reading education — understanding that cheese curds contain milk, that fish fries contain fish, and that many baked goods contain eggs, milk, and wheat helps children make safer decisions in situations where formal labels aren’t available.
Training Your Child
While adults play crucial roles in keeping allergic children safe, children must also develop their own allergy management skills appropriate to their age and maturity level.
Confidence
Food-allergic children sometimes feel anxious, different from peers, or worried about being a burden. Building confidence in managing their allergies helps them navigate school environments more successfully.
Age-appropriate education about their specific allergies forms the foundation. Include children in medical appointments with their allergist, allowing them to ask questions and understand their condition from medical professionals. At Ringwala Allergy & Asthma, Dr. Ringwala’s patient-centered approach includes educating children at an age-appropriate level so they feel empowered, not passive.
Normalize their allergies rather than treating them as shameful secrets. FARE’s statistics show approximately 1 in 13 children has a food allergy — your child isn’t alone or unusual because of their food restrictions. Connecting with other food-allergic children, perhaps through Wisconsin support groups, helps them see they’re part of a larger community.
Teach assertiveness skills. Food-allergic children must sometimes refuse offers from well-meaning adults, resist peer pressure to “just try” foods, or correct misinformation. Role-playing these scenarios helps children develop polite but firm responses that keep them safe without seeming rude.
Recognizing symptoms
Children who can recognize their own allergic reaction symptoms and communicate them to adults have better outcomes because treatment begins faster. Teaching symptom recognition is age-appropriate and potentially life-saving.
Start by explaining what allergic reactions feel like using terms children understand — tingling in the mouth, stomach pain, itchy skin bumps, tightness in the throat. Teach children that if they feel these symptoms, especially after eating, they must immediately tell an adult. Stress that they should never ignore these feelings or hope they’ll go away.
Older children and teens need to understand that they might minimize or hide symptoms due to embarrassment or fear of missing activities. Emphasize that their safety matters more than any potential embarrassment. [Our services page includes resources on recognizing anaphylaxis warning signs for both parents and older children.](internal: /services)
The AAFA’s 2025 State Honor Roll on school allergy policies found significant gaps in how states — including Wisconsin — support students with food allergies in schools, underscoring the importance of family-driven symptom education until systemic improvements catch up.
Final Checklist for Wisconsin Parents
As the school year approaches, use this comprehensive checklist to ensure all aspects of allergy management are addressed. [Download the printable version of this checklist from our FAQ page.](internal: /faq)
Medical Documentation:
- Schedule appointment with allergist for updated allergy action plan
- Obtain multiple copies of allergy action plan with child’s current photo
- Ensure prescription for epinephrine auto-injectors is current
- Check expiration dates on all epinephrine devices
- Request written documentation of specific allergens and severity from allergist if needed for formal accommodations
School Communication:
- Contact school nurse before the school year to introduce your child’s allergies
- Request meeting with classroom teacher(s) to discuss allergies and action plan
- Provide allergy action plan to nurse, teacher, cafeteria manager, and any other relevant staff
- Discuss whether 504 Plan or other formal accommodations are needed
- Confirm school’s policy regarding students carrying their own epinephrine
- Ask about staff training on food allergies and epinephrine administration
Cafeteria Planning:
- Review school lunch menus and allergen information
- Discuss seating arrangements and cleaning protocols with cafeteria staff
- Determine hand-washing procedures before and after meals
- Establish plan for managing shared snacks or birthday celebrations in cafeteria
Classroom Preparations:
- Discuss policy for classroom snacks, parties, and food-based activities with teacher
- Provide safe alternative snacks to keep in classroom for celebrations
- Supply hand wipes for cleaning surfaces before your child eats
- Ensure art supplies and class materials don’t contain food allergens
Emergency Preparedness:
- Verify that all school staff working with your child know where epinephrine is stored
- Confirm multiple staff members are trained in epinephrine administration
- Ensure school has protocol for calling 911 during severe reactions
- Update all emergency contact information
- Practice emergency scenarios with your child
- Verify epinephrine will accompany child on field trips, to specials classes, recess, etc.
Child Preparation:
- Review symptoms of allergic reactions with your child
- Practice how to tell adults about their allergies
- Role-play declining unsafe foods politely
- Teach age-appropriate label reading
- Ensure child knows never to share food
- Build confidence in speaking up about their needs
Physical Education and Activities:
- Inform PE teacher and coaches about allergies
- Discuss team snacks and post-game treats
- Explain food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis if relevant
- Ensure epinephrine is available during all athletic activities
Transportation:
- Inform bus driver about child’s allergies
- Discuss bus safety rules regarding food
- Address food sharing and bullying concerns on bus
Ongoing Monitoring:
- Schedule regular check-ins with school staff throughout the year
- Update allergy action plan if anything changes
- Replace epinephrine devices before expiration dates
Summary
Managing food allergies in Wisconsin schools requires proactive planning, clear communication, comprehensive documentation, and ongoing vigilance. While the responsibility may feel overwhelming, remember that you’re not alone in this effort. School staff, when properly informed and trained, can be powerful allies in keeping your child safe while allowing them to fully participate in educational and social experiences.
The key principles for successful school allergy management include: comprehensive written allergy action plans that clearly document allergens, symptoms, and emergency treatments; open communication with all school staff who interact with your child; teaching your child age-appropriate allergy management skills including symptom recognition and self-advocacy; understanding legal protections available under Section 504 and other laws; preparing for high-risk situations like cafeteria meals, classroom parties, and field trips; ensuring epinephrine is always accessible wherever your child is in the school building or during school activities; and maintaining collaborative relationships with school personnel rather than adversarial ones.
Wisconsin schools are increasingly aware of food allergies as their prevalence rises — driven in part by Wisconsin’s designation of May as Food Allergy Awareness Month and new restaurant allergen training legislation — but awareness levels and management sophistication vary significantly between districts and even between buildings within the same district.
If you encounter resistance from schools in implementing necessary allergy accommodations, resources are available. FARE offers school-specific resources, template letters, and advocacy guidance for families navigating this process. The AAAAI’s school tools section provides evidence-based frameworks you can bring directly to school administrators.
Board-certified allergists can provide medical documentation supporting accommodation requests and can sometimes participate in school meetings to explain the medical necessity of specific safety measures. Schedule a consultation with Dr. Ringwala at Ringwala Allergy & Asthma — with four Wisconsin locations across Kenosha, Franklin, Oshkosh, and the surrounding area — to ensure your child’s allergy management plan is medically sound, thoroughly documented, and ready to support every school year ahead. You can also explore our full range of food allergy services at Wisconsin Food Allergy to understand the complete spectrum of testing, treatment, and support available to your family.
