Government to assign students with type 1 diabetes to nearby schools

Patient organizations have welcomed the government's move to include students with type 1 diabetes in the list of those eligible for short-range schooling.

Last Wednesday, the Ministry of Education announced a proposed amendment to the enforcement decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to add students with type 1 diabetes to the list of those eligible for short-distance schooling. People can send comments on it until Aug. 19.

The current law defines only "physically handicapped” students as those who need to be placed at a short-distance school for health reasons when they move on to upper-level schools. However, some school boards have responded to student and parent requests to include students with rare diseases, cancer, and type 1 diabetes in the list of eligible students.

Still, depending on local school boards' interpretation of the new law, some requests for nearer schools have been denied.

With this amendment, the Ministry of Education has added to Article 69 of the enforcement decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which stipulates admission methods for sports talents and other reasons, to include people with rare diseases under Article 2 of the Rare Disease Management Act and other severe and incurable disease, including cancer and type 1 diabetes, officials said.

The Korean Society of Type 1 Diabetes said on Friday that it "appreciates and welcomes” the decision." The organization surveyed to revise the regulations and submitted the results to the Ministry of Education in May.

"Over 70 percent of students with type 1 diabetes have been assigned to proximity schools. However, each time, parents had to go through the process of explaining and convincing the provincial education office what type 1 diabetes is," the group said. "Some cases were rejected. This was due to different interpretations of the decree by different school boards."

The society added that this amendment would be welcomed by parents and city and provincial education officials, as it provides a basis for parents to obtain a near-site placement without explaining and convincing officials about type 1 diabetes.

The organization also thanked the Ministry of Education for discussions with provincial education departments on the support for insulin injections for students with type 1 diabetes, guidelines for bringing in electronic devices that work with medical devices used by students with type 1 diabetes, and the inclusion of electronic devices, including continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, carried by students with type 1 diabetes in the College Entrance Examination Administrator's Guidance Document.