Education Ministry admits to not having data on allergies in children, reactions in schools

The admission came during a hearing on a petition filed by attorney Gilad Bar Tal, legal adviser to the Yahal Association, against what the organization describes as an experiment.

The Education Ministry admitted during a High Court of Justice hearing on Monday that it does not have data on the number of children with allergies in Israel’s education system, the number of allergic reactions that have occurred in schools, or the number of evacuations carried out as a result.

The admission came during a hearing on a petition filed by attorney Gilad Bar Tal, legal adviser to the Yahal Association, against what the organization describes as an experiment conducted on children with allergies.

Under the program, the Education Ministry seeks to remove medical aides from first and second grade classrooms and replace them with support provided by school nurses. The pilot program, first reported by Walla, began at the start of the current school year in 10 schools.

The petition was filed following opposition from parents and the Yahal Association to the move. According to the association, despite the lack of available data, the Education Ministry continues to argue that the new model is appropriate and safe to implement.

During the hearing, Bar Tal presented the petitioners’ arguments, saying that key questions regarding the handling of allergic emergencies in real time remain unanswered. These include how school staff will respond when a child develops a reaction, how the nurse will be alerted, and how much time will pass before emergency treatment is provided.

The association also argued that the state has presented the pilot as a move accompanied by a professional research process, but that such research has not yet begun.

According to the petitioners, a tender is currently underway to select an academic body that will conduct the research at a later stage. The parents argued that this means the model was launched before a research framework was established that would allow its effectiveness and potential consequences to be measured.

Petitioners criticize Association of Allergologists 

The petitioners’ representatives also criticized the position of the Association of Allergologists during the hearing. The Yahal Association argued that the association’s position does not give sufficient consideration to the emotional and psychological effects of life-threatening allergies on young children, and that the safety of the model cannot be assessed solely based on cases of death or severe medical incidents.

“We do not live according to statistics; we deal with reality,” the association said following the hearing. “In addition to the fear of an attack that could cause irreversible damage, even a ‘mild’ reaction is still an allergic attack. The children’s sense of security is also important, and at the age of 6 and 7, the solution of a school nurse is simply bad. Our children deserve to be free to learn, with physical and mental health, just like everyone else.”

Association claims opposition not to school nurses but to the replacement of aides without data

The association stressed that its opposition is not to examining alternative models to medical aides, but rather to the way the move is being implemented.

“We are not against change, and we are not against examining other models instead of aides. We are against a unilateral move, without sufficient data, without clear reasoning, without measures that define success or failure, and above all, without an answer to the most important question: While the Education Ministry is conducting the experiment, are our children safe in the education system?”

They added: “You cannot conduct an experiment on the backs of our children and only afterward check whether it succeeded, without clear success and failure measures. Our children are not a budget line, and their lives are not an experiment.”