What is unique about Oliver Labels is they offer a "Found It" service where every user of their labels can purchase a tracking number and have their tracking website and their individual tracking number imprinted on the labels of their choosing.
The labels have an option for allergy labels like food allergies, no nuts, not eggs, no dairy, no gluten and no seafood. The fashion inspired and monogram designed are appropriate for older individuals with special needs. Products are shipped out in 24-48 hours and prices range from $19.99 to $48.99 depending on what you purchase, the higher prices are for packages. If your school or agency needs to do some fundraising Oliver's offer that chance.
Please remember it is not generally recommended for your child's name to be visible to strangers if they do not have the needed skills around staying safe.
Being a huge proponent of children and adults with any kind of medical issue or special needs wearing identification/medical alert tags there have been a few posts on this blog about the issue before. My favorite false argument is that non-speaking students do not need medical ID because someone is always with them, which fails to take into account what could happen if that "someone" is the person who has a medical emergency. How will the non-speaking individual identify him or herself? Or give emergency information for his or her caretaker? Or give a phone number to reach someone else to help? Or assure emergency responders that everything is OK? Trust me no one is going to turn on and set up an AAC device. Medical identification is essential for all non-speaking individuals.
Beyond this medical identification can save precious minutes at school and other places in a crisis. If all the teacher/aide/school nurse has to do is call 911 and read the info off a bracelet/necklace/shoe tag then the ambulance will get their fast compared to the amount of time it would have taken to locate the emergency forms in the file cabinet/binder/desk drawer. This are minutes that count. Zoo Bears ID carries some wonderful ID items for infants and children, including special needs children (such as shoe tags and zipper pulls for kiddos who will not wear anything else). Carrying some kind of ID is a must for all adults, period. N'Style ID offers a nice selection for Tweens and Teens. My personal advice is to go through Medic Alert for the toll free hot line paramedics/ERs can use to get your medical records and then print that on stylish or sensory appropriate ID. Yes, it costs more, but it is worth it. (As an insulin pumping diabetic who is allergic to penicillin I personally wear a Medic Alert bracelet with a pretty beaded bracelet for special occasions.)
Safety Tats are personalized, rub on tattoos (write on, stick on also available) sold in packs of 30 for about $20.00). You can order them to indicate I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency), Allergies, Medical Conditions, Special Needs or Original. School field trip sets can be ordered as well. Kids Kontact sells a similar product in Australia. FiddledeeIDs sells alert stickers and temporary tattoos and other medical alert gear. These are a nice options for family trips, day trips, vacations, and similar excursions to unknown and unfamiliar locations.
Another product that can increase safety for some individuals with special needs, especially those with limited or no-speaking skills is a special lunch box which clearly indicates food allergies and/or feeding issues. Allergators and STAT Kids both sell lunch bags which clearly mark lunch bags with a child's allergies. STAT Kids bags can be personalized (i.e. for pureed food, diabetic diet, ketogenic diet, choking precautions or food from home only); they also sell backpacks and fanny packs.
At the very least ask parents to (or make for your child) a medical alert wallet card for free:
Project Lifesaver is a program that coordinates between caregivers for individuals with disabilities that make them likely to wander or get lost and local law enforcement/rescue services. It involves the individual with a disability wearing a transmitter, usually on a wrist or ankle band (which must be checked daily to be sure it is working by the caregiver). This transmitter relays GPS location to rescue workers in the event that the individual is lost. Project Lifesaver has a 100% rescue rate (1,691 rescues), is endorsed by many sheriff and national disability societies and has been featured on TV shows like Extreme Home Makeover. Here is a video explaining how it works:
The carrying of medical or some other kind of identification has long been a mission of mine when it comes to individuals with significant disabilities. I worry less about something happening to the individual with a disability and more about what would happen to the individual with the disability if something happened to his or her caregiver.
For example, if one of my non-speaking students had a seizure out at the mall with his or her PCA, then the PCA could coordinate his or her emergency care. However, what if one of my students was at the mall with his or her PCA and the PCA had a medical emergency, perhaps fainted or choked? How would emergency workers know who to contact for my student? How would emergency workers know whether or not my student's behavior/medical status was normal for him or her? (Trust me, no one is going to set up that AAC device if it is not set up already to ask the individual.) The answer is that the medical worker would not know. Not unless the student was wearing or carrying some kind of identification. At the very least, I hope that the my student was carrying some kind of cell phone with I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency, MOM or DAD programmed into speed dial) and someone answered.
My "better safe than sorry" recommendation is a cell phone plus both a medical ID bracelet, necklace or shoe tag (a shoe tag is a great way to go with sensory defensive kids) and an information tag/card hanging on the back of the wheelchair, the back pack or in a wallet.
I personally wear a Medic Alert bracelet (the one that has the toll free number that rescue workers or emergency rooms can call for more information on my medical condition), carry a wallet card and have a medic alert sticker on my car (I am an insulin pump using diabetic). I have friends who also carry a bright red, medic alert, encrypted flash drive with their medical files. I would love to see all of my students and all people with disabilities do the same.
When my friend's daughter, who has significant disabilities, was in a minor school bus accident and was taken to the emergency room they looked in her back pack for emergency contact information, prompting us to make emergency information cards and place them in every student's backpack in our classroom.
In addition, Medic Alert even sells bracelets/ID for caregivers as part of their safe return program, the bracelets state that the individual is a caregiver for someone with _____ disability and to call the toll free number for more information. When the emergency worker calls the number they not only receive information on the caregiver, but also on the individual with a disability.
Here is the link to Medic Alert and other medical identification and similar companies:
Note: after writing this post I happened to see similar cards left out for people to take at the registration desk at my doctor's office! Perhaps you local doctor's office or hospital could supply you with these for all of your students.
;)
