NORTH PROVIDENCE — At a time when many school districts grapple with how to protect children who have nut allergies, without trampling on the rights of classmates who want peanut butter sandwiches, school officials believe they have come up with a solution.

Under a new policy approved by the School Committee last month, parents whose children are in a “peanut-free” classroom need no longer refrain from packing peanut butter or other nut products in their child’s lunch, even if one or more classmates are severely allergic.

That’s because under the new policy, no lunches can be brought into a room that has been designated peanut free.

Instead, as in the case of the Stephen Olney Elementary School, where seven rooms have been designated nut-free, children drop their lunches into a barrel before entering the room and retrieve them just before lunch starts. Those with severe nut allergies then go to “peanut-free” tables in the cafeteria, while classmates — including some who have granola bars and peanut butter sandwiches in their lunch bags — eat at other tables.

School Committee member Stephen Palmieri says he proposed a revision in the district’s policy after learning that procedures vary from school to school and after hearing a parent express her frustration that she could not make peanut butter sandwiches for her son, “which he loves,” while children in a neighboring classroom without the peanut-free label were under no constraints.

Jan Merwin, health education specialist for the state Department of Education, says even with revisions the General Assembly made this year to the law regarding peanuts in school, there is still considerable confusion among nurses and administrators as to how the law is to be implemented.

The original law, he says, left much to be desired, because it attempted to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, dictating that the schools have at least one “peanut-free” classroom per grade and calling for peanut-free tables in the cafeteria even if a student’s peanut allergy was relatively mild.

The new law abolishes those strict requirements and instead calls on schools to develop an individual health-care plan and an emergency health-care plan for each student needing protection.

“The purpose was to allow the schools more flexibility based on the individual student needs,” Merwin said. “Not every student is so allergic that they can’t be in the same room with someone eating peanuts. Some say just being able to smell peanut butter could create a severe reaction among some people. There is debate about that. But we also know that many students can’t eat peanuts themselves, but are not affected by others eating peanuts.”

The health-care specialist noted that the revised state law doesn’t require that students in peanut-free classrooms surrender their lunches before entering the classroom, but said the approach, as adopted in North Providence, has merit.

“I would say it is a good middle-of-the-road strategy because it allows students to bring peanut butter to school. Peanut butter is a great lunch for kids. It has protein and kids like it,” said Merwin.

At the same time, he said, preventing all lunches from being taken into the classroom protects sensitive children from inadvertent exposure. “Parents may not realize that even a box of raisins may be a threat, because it may have been produced in a facility that processes peanuts.”

Merwin said that nationally, about 4 percent of children have a peanut allergy, though not all of them are so allergic that they require special treatment.

Yet for some students, exposure to nuts can cause a severe, and even fatal, reaction. According to the Rhode Island Department of Health, food allergies cause as many as 30,000 emergency room visits nationwide every year, and claim 150 lives each year.

rdujardi@projo.com