Medication at School
If your child requires medication while at school, please ensure you follow the below steps:
- Submit a Consent to Administer Medication form.
- Provide the school with the medication in original packaging with pharmacy label in students name.
- Pharmacy label must have the dose, administration time and prescribing doctors name.
- If your child’s medication needs to be measured, cut or crushed, please supply the school with measuring cup or pill cutter/crusher.
Over The Counter Medication (OTC) at school (e.g. Panadol, Nurophen, hayfever tablets or eye drops etc)
Whilst parents may administer OTC (over the counter, i.e. Panadol or hayfever tablets) medications to their child without medical authorisation, they are aware of the child’s complete medical history, and are able to provide ongoing, direct supervision for the course of the child’s illness. Due to these circumstances, a parent is also more likely to recognise if their child is having adverse effects and requires immediate medical attention.
The student’s prescribing health practitioner also has the knowledge of the child’s medical history to determine the appropriate OTC medication to administer and is therefore able to determine dosage and provide advice regarding potential side effects or interactions with other medications.
For these reasons, OTC medications will only be administered to students at school if medical authorisation has been received.
Prescribing health practitioners (e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist, nurse practitioner) may prescribe medication to students that is to be administered ‘as needed’ or ‘as required’ in response to certain symptoms.
Please note: A pharmacy label on the student’s prescribed medication indicating it is to be given ‘as needed’ does not provide sufficient information for school staff to safely administer it, as they are not qualified to make clinical decisions about when medication is required.
For school staff to safely administer ‘as-needed’ medication, the school requires detailed written advice via the medication order form from the prescribing health practitioner regarding:
- the specific signs and symptoms that the student would show indicating the medication needs to be administered;
- the maximum number of dosages allowed during the school day and over a 24-hour period;
- the minimum length of time allowed between dosages; and
- the expected response the student would have after taking this medication so that atypical symptoms or side effects that could require medical attention are easily identified.
If a child becomes ill at school, every effort will be made to contact the parents, or another person nominated by the parents.