June is Student Safety Month, and from our teachers to school nurses, to principals and custodial staff, to bus drivers and lunch supervisors, to educational assistants and volunteers, we know there are dozens of people that students encounter during the day to keep them safe! While the amount of supervision eases up as kids get older—unsupervised, or less supervised lunch, walks home, and school trips—students then take more responsibility for not only their own safety, but helping others, too. We have a lot of people to thank for keeping students safe—and yes, that includes students themselves!

From kindergarten (or earlier) to college, the physical and emotional safety of students is important when they’re in class, competing or cheering on the school sports team, or at home doing homework or resting up for another day at school. In a constantly changing world, kids and families are more on guard than ever to keep kids safe—and for students with medical conditions, this can be a task requiring an even greater deal of diligence. As kids grow up, they take on more and more of the responsibility of managing their medical condition and keeping in check with their health needs. This means that parents may fade back their involvement a bit, and teachers may receive less intensive training on the medical needs of the students in their classes. No matter if a child has food allergies, asthma, a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy, or other medical needs, for Student Safety Week, here at My Identity Doctor we recommend the minimum two steps that should keep kids safe at school:

Young students may not have the ability to communicate their medical needs to adults and other students, and can encounter a lot of people in the day who need to know about their medical needs—medical ID jewelry can help students as they learn to self-advocate. Older students may not want to talk about their health concerns or allergies, and this may also put them at risk—a medical ID bracelet or necklace ensure that students are safe by communicating these needs to school staff, and also friends of older students in the event of a medical emergency—especially those in college. Just these two steps can give parents and families greater peace of mind during the school day, or when an adult kid goes away to college.

College brings even greater independence, and need to manage medical needs adequately. For busy students who have recently moved on campus, ensuring their roommate and resident assistant know about their medical needs and what to do in an emergency is important. A medical ID bracelet, like in younger years, ensures that young adults medical needs are known, in the event they can’t speak for themselves.

For Student Safety Month, take a look—if your child isn’t wearing a medical ID, should they be? And if they are, make sure it’s up to date [LINK] and ready in case it’s needed.