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Should come to school in September: Lenny Jank (6) from Schwebda. Because the boy has diabetes, he needs a full-time school companion. © private/nh
Lenny Jank from Schwebda will start school in a few weeks. The six-year-old has diabetes and needs a school companion. But nobody wants to pay that.
Schwebda – In almost exactly five weeks, six-year-old Lenny Jank from Schwebda is supposed to start school. The little boy is a happy child, has gaps in his teeth like all ABC shooters and is an enthusiastic karate athlete. But because the boy was diagnosed with diabetes a year and a half ago, Lenny needs a school companion. From morning to afternoon, someone in his presence must be able to react adequately to the six-year-old’s blood sugar fluctuations: be it adjusting his insulin doses, supervising his activities and eating and, in an emergency, even putting a loosened catheter back in place.
No rocket science – Lenny’s parents Jennifer and David Jank know how to manage diabetes without being medical professionals. But the parents work and so far no one is willing to pay for a school companion for their son. The university clinic in Göttingen has issued a corresponding regulation, but nobody wants to fulfill it. The decision is pushed back and forth between authorities and health insurance companies. “And we’re running out of time,” says David Jank.
Werra-Meißner-Kreis, as the school authority, refuses to assume the costs
The Werra-Meißner-Kreis as the school authority rejects the assumption of the costs with the reason: “Due to the current case law on such case constellations, the responsibility of the district as the local provider of the integration aid is not given according to our knowledge of the situation,” said the spokesman for the district Jörg Klinge at the request of the WR.
The health insurance company AOK also rejects the assumption of costs for all-day school support for the six-year-old. The insurance company wants to carry what is known as intensified insulin therapy for Lenny’s first year of school, but only once a day during school hours. The medical requirements for “special patient observation” are not in place, the prescribed services do not meet the requirements of the HKP guidelines (home nursing care), so that the AOK is not allowed to contribute to the costs, says a spokesman.
Father Daniel Jank knows that a one-time daily care of his son does not work and has therefore already lodged an objection with the health insurance company. “Lenny is too small to assess his physical condition. He first has to develop a feeling for his body and his illness.” In order to calculate his insulin requirements, he would have to know the rule of three. Jank assumes that Lenny might be able to do this from the fifth grade. Before that needs support. In a relevant case law of the Darmstadt Social Court, there is even talk of an age of up to 16 years.
Someone from Werraland-Lebenswelten would be available to accompany the six-year-old to school at the start of the school year at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-School in Wanfried. But this accompaniment has to be paid for.
Blood glucose sensor on the upper arm
Lenny used to go to the “Löwenzahn” kindergarten in Schwebda. There, employees of the facility had been trained to manage the boy’s diabetes – in constant contact with the parents, who were available to the educators at all times. Lenny has a blood sugar sensor on his upper arm that measures the blood sugar level in the subcutaneous tissue. The necessary insulin is supplied via a pump that the six-year-old carries in a bag around his waist. The data is permanently transferred to his parents’ mobile phones via an app. But all technology has its limits. Lenny will not be able to attend school without a companion, and the family cannot afford to finance the job themselves.
Lenny’s parents, who have a younger child, currently just wish that “an agency would agree to cover the costs of accompanying Lenny to school until a decision is reached in a lawsuit that may take years.” “Then it could we finally put a stop to it and Lenny can go to school,” says David Jank.
Judgment of the Darmstadt Social Court
In an identical case of a girl with diabetes, the Darmstadt Social Court in 2021 ordered the child’s health insurance company to bear the costs of all-day school support until the complicated case was finally clarified. Otherwise the basic rights of the child – namely to go to school – would be violated. The health insurance company had to pay for so-called backup care for the girl every day from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
In addition, the factual and legal situation cannot be clarified in the summary proceedings. In this case, too, it was disputed whether the health insurance company or the provider of the integration assistance (the district) was responsible. In a further procedure, it should be clarified whether the fund and district share the costs of accompanying the girl to school.
The girl’s mother had appealed against the health insurance company’s decision, which, like in the Lenny case, only granted the child one-off daily help. However, the court basically ruled that the girl should be accompanied at school all day long, so that “intervention” is possible at any time. The child needs constant observation during school time so that “appropriate measures can be taken in unforeseeable situations”.
By Stefanie Salzman
#running #time
