HISD provides nutritious meals to all students, including those who require special diets due to medical reasons (i.e., disability, allergies, etc.). Therefore, the Texas Department of Agriculture requires that the district maintain an updated diet order on file before providing these special dietary accommodations.

To ensure that your child receives the food he/she needs to fulfill the recommended diet, please ask your doctor to complete the Physicians Request for Special Dietary Accommodations form and send to the school nurse. Please ensure that it is completely filled out with all the required information so Nutrition Services can promptly process the request and begin dietary accommodations as soon as possible.

 Before accommodations can occur, the Texas Department of Agriculture requires the following information must be present on the Physicians Request for Special Dietary Accommodations form: 

• Student’s name, date of birth and school attended
• Part B completely filled out
• Medical condition provided
• Foods to be omitted, texture modifications, and supplement to be supplied for disabled students
• Physicians name, signature, phone number, address and date

HISD requires that the Physicians Request for Special Dietary Accommodations form is updated every school year or whenever a change in diet is required. Accommodations are considered ONLY for those students requiring a change in diet based on medical need. Special dietary accommodations will not be made without the appropriate medical documentation.

Any necessary menu accommodations will be communicated by the Nutrition Services’ Dietitian to the school nurse and cafeteria manager. Please allow several days for processing and ordering of food. It is recommended that the guardian send a meal from home until the necessary accommodations are in place.

Students Requiring Supplements

HISD Nutrition Services is excited to announce the introduction of a formulary list for dietary supplements. If your child requires oral or internal supplemental nutrition, please take the Physician Request for Special Dietary Accommodations form to your child's physician for completion and return completed forms to your school nurse for processing.

Religious Requests

From time to time we receive requests for special individualized diet plans to meet the personal, non-medical preferences of our families. Nutrition Services only provides special dietary accommodations for students with a valid medical condition. We are not able to accommodate students for religious preferences or reasons. Although it is not feasible to meet everyone’s particular needs by providing individual diet plans, this information may be helpful to you when making school meal choices for your family. Please see additional information regarding our menus below:

• The menus do offer some vegetarian entrée options and we are working to increase the variety of options available.
• Vegetarian, whole grain, and heart healthy items are identified on the menu with special icons.
• All of our sausage or ham products are 100% turkey, chicken, or beef and contains no pork.
   

Contact Nutrition Services Dietitians