Moving from Good Idea to Good Law

If a diabetic child's blood sugar level slips too low, they can fall into a life-threatening coma. When that happens, they need Glucagon. Right away.

Before 2008, if that crisis happened at school, only the school nurse could administer the life saving medication. Parents of diabetic children worried about who could help their children in an emergency during after school activities, on field trips, or at any time when a school nurse was unavailable. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) took up their cause, but for several years legislation to remedy the situation went nowhere in the Rhode Island General Assembly.

In 2006, the ADA retained Clarendon. We determined that, in the face of opposition from the School Nurse Teachers Association and from some school administrators, many legislators did not recognize the urgency of the problem. Others did not realize that administering Glucagon was something lay people could do—and were doing—with just a little training.

Using the "smart advocacy" techniques we are known for, Clarendon crafted a strategy to supplement our direct lobbying efforts with an earned media campaign. Focused on local newspapers so that lawmakers could read about people in their districts who would be helped by the legislation, the campaign generated a number of sympathetic stories including a favorable editorial in the hometown newspaper of a key legislator.

In 2007, the bill passed the Rhode Island Senate. In 2008, we enlisted the House Majority Leader in our cause, and the legislation passed both the House and the Senate and became law.