ARNOLD • Rich and Paula Simpson have been trying for more than two years to convince the Fox School District that excluding their daughter from certain activities because of her severe allergy to peanuts is no different from excluding a student in a wheelchair.

They have filed nine complaints with the Office of Civil Rights against the district. Some are still open and some they are appealing, they said, but none has produced the special designation they want for their child.

The case is an example of how parents are seeking more accommodations for students in the nation's classrooms. School districts know how to build a wheelchair ramp but may have little experience dealing with food allergies beyond establishing peanut-free zones in cafeterias and limiting birthday treats.

In 2008, Congress expanded the definition of who is eligible for federal protection by adopting the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act. One key change was that a person could be protected under the law even if he or she didn't suffer at all times from the disability. For instance, a child with a food allergy can be fine except during a reaction.

One way for parents to force districts to make accommodations for their allergic children is to develop a 504 plan with the school district. Such a plan — named for a section of the law — identifies a student's disability and lists what the school will do to make sure the student is safe.

"The law, to me, seems perfectly clear that you are entitled to a 504 plan," said Tess O'Brien, a lawyer in Madison, Wis., whose 11-year-old daughter is allergic to peanuts.

O'Brien's daughter's 504 plan took effect four years ago, even before the law was expanded.

The plan allows her daughter to carry a purse with her from class to class so she always has an EpiPen, an epinephrine self-injector used to counteract a reaction. Students in her class are not allowed to bring snacks with peanut butter to class.

The Simpsons want the school district to give their daughter Sara a similar plan. "It's about access to learning," Paula Simpson said in an interview. The Fox district granted her daughter a 504 plan for three months in 2008, she said, then decided it was unnecessary.

The Simpsons say that having a 504 plan would give them written assurance that Sara won't be excluded from activities. They were appalled when a first-grade teacher once said she would send Sara to stand in the hall if peanuts were in the room.

Sara's inclusion should extend to field trips, the family says. That was the basis of a complaint they filed last year with the Office for Civil Rights, under the Department of Education. Ultimately, the office ruled that the Fox district did not deny Sara, then a second-grader, the right to fully participate in a field trip to Cold Stone Creamery, which is not a nut-free business. The Simpsons are appealing.

Sara was in a gifted program studying a unit on 'secret formulas," according to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a public records request. The class went to the ice cream shop to mix their own ice cream. The Simpsons told the school district that Sara could be adversely affected by airborne allergens and suggested the class should go to a pizza restaurant instead.

The district responded that six students in the group were allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, and that a clerk would stand next to those children and mix their ice cream for them. The parents weren't satisfied. They said that if students were not allowed to mix or eat their own ice cream recipes, they would not be "afforded an opportunity to participate in the field trip that was equal to the opportunity afforded students who do not have nut allergies."

Sara did not attend that field trip. The district noted that her parents had complained about three previous field trips, but she went on each and never had an allergic reaction.

The Simpsons said Sara, now 8 and in the third grade, has suffered three allergic reactions, the first when she was just shy of her first birthday. None required hospitalization or the use of an EpiPen, and none occurred at school.

Dan Baker, assistant superintendent of special services for the Fox School District, said in an interview that the school cannot give a 504 designation to a student just because the family requests one.

"Just because there's a medical diagnosis doesn't mean they're going to qualify," Baker said.

Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

Baker said he could not discuss the Simpsons' case because of confidentiality rules but strongly believes the district has handled the situation appropriately. He said the district had spent a lot in legal fees during the dispute, but he did not know an exact amount.

Of the district's roughly 12,000 students, he said, about 100 have 504 plans. He did not specify how many were for food allergies.

The district has a "food allergy awareness protocol," which includes procedures for cleaning the cafeteria tables and entering each child's allergy into a computer database.

The policy is designed to increase awareness and communication but does not guarantee an allergen-free environment.

Written guidelines are common, but local school districts vary widely in how they deal with food allergies. In the Rockwood School District, the number of 504 plans granted has grown in recent years, said Amy Wehr, the district's supervisor of wellness and health services. She said requests for a 504 plan are typically granted.

"Our duty is to provide reasonable accommodations," Wehr said, although she added that sometimes a request is too burdensome, such as when a doctor requested a school be peanut-free.

The Fort Zumwalt district took more extreme measures, banning all peanuts at Mount Hope and Rock Creek elementary schools several years ago.

Yet even in that district, which takes unusually high precautions to guard against allergic reactions, Superintendent Bernard DuBray said just one student has a 504 plan for food allergies.

The state does not track how many 504 plans are in place. Chris Weiss, vice president of advocacy and government relations for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, said individual health plans are far more common in schools.

Three million children nationwide suffer from food allergies, and 2 million of them are school-age. Weiss said the idea of food allergies being considered as a civil rights issue is more prevalent than most people know. He said it's also common for parents to disagree with how schools handle food allergies. But it's rare for those disagreements to reach the point of filing a civil rights complaint.

"Typically, the parent is able to work things out with the school," he said.

The Simpsons say they don't want to file a lawsuit against the district and they don't want to move. They say a 504 plan is the best way to protect their daughter. They believe such plans would be more widespread if more parents knew the option existed.

"Most parents aren't even aware of what a 504 is," Rich Simpson said. "If you don't know about it, you can't ask about it."

David Hunn of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.