Devin Der is like any other playful kindergarten student. He loves soccer and playing with his friends at school.
When he’s at home his days are spent building Lego with his sister — his favourites are superhero and Pokemon themed — and playing with the family cat named Cheese.
However, his playtime has to go on hold a few times a day to get his insulin shots. Devin was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on his third day of pre-kindergarten in 2017.
“As much as the school wanted to support us they didn’t know how, and I didn’t know how,” mother Kellie Biden said.
“It was a big struggle trying to figure out what we were going to do; how we were going to ensure he was safe.”
Luckily, the Biden family was able to work Devin’s insulin shots around his half-day schedule. That became more difficult when he began going to school for full days in kindergarten.
The Biden’s chose to enroll Devin in Moose Jaw’s Lindale School because they have experience helping diabetic students.
“They fought for two months for us to get the school board to allow them to give him insulin. So it wasn’t that our school wasn’t willing to give him insulin it was that the school board saw it as a liability,” Kellie explained.
Devin’s routine of insulin shots includes one every day around noon. Before the local school division allowed Devin’s educational assistant (EA) to administer insulin, Kellie had to make a roughly one hour round trip from their home outside Moose Jaw to give him the shot.
“We can’t afford for me to go back to work because I can’t afford to have someone do this for my son. The amount of money we would have to pay is through the roof. We can’t afford it,” Kellie said.
Saskatchewan is the lone province without a standardized policy for how schools help diabetic students. There are guidelines for how divisions address students with life-threatening conditions, like diabetes, but that can vary from division to division.
Diabetes Canada estimates that around 30,000 school-age children nationwide have Type 1 diabetes.
Alberta just introduced a province-wide strategy for students with Type 1 diabetes in February.
Kellie and local representatives from Diabetes Canada met with Education Minister Gordon Wyant in December to push for Saskatchewan developing its own school diabetes policy.
“It’s a very concerning situation that she has with her son and her school. It was an enlightening conversation for me, but it was a good conversation,” Wyant said.
Wyant said he has directed his staff to work with their counterparts in the health ministry to look at best practices in other provinces and see what could work in Saskatchewan.
“We want to make sure that we have a consistent policy to ensure we can protect these children,” Wyant said.
The minister could not give a hard timeline on when any potential changes are brought forward, but noted this is a personal priority.
“It’s a concern for me and we want to make sure we resolve it as quickly as possible,” Wyant said.
For now, Devin’s insulin situation is sorted out but Kellie worries about what Grade 1 holds.
“We’ve been told by his principal and reassured that as long as she is principal there will be coverage. They will figure this out, but what if she gets a better job offer? What if his EA leaves and decides to become a classroom teacher? That’s what I don’t know and that’s what’s scary. Because it’s taken us six months now to get this figured out,” Kellie said.
“A Grade 1 student, at six-years-old, do you trust a child to give themselves a medicine a half-dose – just one extra click on his pen – could be the difference between life and death.”
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