On November 1, 2018, the American Diabetes Association joined with 3 families to bring a class action lawsuit against New York City, the New York City Department of Education, Office of School Health, and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The lawsuit addresses these New York City agencies’ failures to meet their legal obligations under federal and city law.

The lawsuit addresses several issues with diabetes care in New York City public schools and aims to ensure that students with diabetes are safe at school. New York City students with diabetes are routinely excluded from extracurricular activities, such as field trips, because the city agencies fail or refuse to provide diabetes care. The Department of Education has created a system for processing 504 plans that, by its own design, makes it impossible for children to have the services and accommodations they need in place on the first day of school. The Department of Education also fails to ensure that the individuals who are providing diabetes care have received the training they need to provide the services they’ve been designated to provide. Finally, schools are not conducting individualized assessments to determine the least restrictive environment for delivery of diabetes care, meaning that students miss critical classroom time. On June 17, 2019, the Court granted our motion and this lawsuit officially became a class action on behalf of “all students with diabetes who are now or will be entitled to receive diabetes related care and attend New York City Department of Education schools.” Disability Rights Advocates represents the class.

Prior to this lawsuit, the American Diabetes Association has actively advocated for students with diabetes in New York state and New York City, including supporting legislation in 2014 which expanded the rights of students with diabetes by permitting unlicensed personnel to administer glucagon and students with diabetes the right to manage their diabetes in school any place, any time.

The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York and requests that the judge order the New York City agencies to comply with federal law.

This page will be updated with case documents and other important information as they become available.

New York City Public Schools lawsuit documents

• Complaint (PDF)

• Court Order Granting Motion For Class Certification (PDF)

  New York resources and guidance 

• New York State Department of Education, Clarification on Insulin Pumps (March 2012)
• New York Statewide School Health Services Center/New York State Department of Education, Levels of Assistance in Medication Delivery in the School Setting (September 2019)
• New York State Education Department, Office of Student Support Services, Guidelines For Medication Management in Schools (Dec. 2017)