I wish my school were nut free. Hmmmmm, maybe it is now that I've moved!!!!

(Oh, come on.... you had to see that one coming!)

Our school is completly nut free due to children with allergies attending. The children just accept it as part of the "school rules". The parents have a harder time with it as it does limit the food that can be brought it etc.

I agree that it is not a PTO issue but the PTO should be aware of it for event planning purposes. We follow the school rules at social events but cannot possibly guarentee that our food is truely peanut free. The allergy families are made aware of that and choose to attend or not based on their comfort level.

On our list of approved foods were pizza and oreos, as per some of the allergy families, however at an event another allergy family were upset that we served those items because oreos were outside their "comfort zone" (the manufacturer can't guarentee cross contamination won't occur) and they didn't know if the place that we purchased the pizza from used peanut products in their kitchen.

no boos for you. all ai' ai's.
some teachers wtih backbone have seen this oneupping business happen over the yrs, and have quietly cut out parties long before the RULES came down.
was always hard to see one class get fifty bucks worth of goodies (yes, it happens) and the one next door, get three dollars, at the springtime celebration.
school parties became more for the parents (to show off) and less for the kids, and some teachers have stomped it out without waiting for admin to do something about it. (some teahcers also exclude classrm volunteers for same reason ,,,was too much of a good thing and got out of control)
yeah to the level headed teachers who think parents shoudl play a support, and not leading role, in the classroom!

Our school now has a "no-parties" rule-this includes birthdays, halloween, valentines & winter holidays(x-mas). In addition, we no longer have a christmas concert, we have a winter concert. This is mainly due to one teacher we have that has religious conflicts with any holidays.

I might get booed out of the room for this but here's another side to the story. Outside of nutrition laws and allergies, some of this room party/birthday treat stuff has gotten completely out of hand. It used to be that if a child had a birthday, cookies or cupcakes were a nice midafternoon snack and a five or ten minute 'to do'. Now, in some places they've turned into outgrageous mini parties and take up a lot of time and energy. Also, what of the kids who aren't royalty? Who's parents can't or won't make them the center of the universe? It has, sadly, become one more way for parents and kids to keep up with the Joneses.

It seems, to me, that schools have had almost no choice but to throw out blanket rules to get it all back under control. The very real issues of nutrition rules and allergies have just given them a base to attach it to.

kat111, to answer your question, YES, some schools are very strict indeed:

no foods can be brought in to share (class parties) with other kids, all class parties foods issued by cafeteria. why?

foodhandling and safety and hygiene issues!
ingredient control is secondary.

draconian rule? yes. without merit? no. imo.

this type of rule is becoming adopted at more and more schools from what i understand. and has nothing to do with the newfangled wellness policy and fight against obesity, is a totally different animal.