Anyone have a high school student with a chronic illness in Faifax schools?
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Anonymous
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We have just moved here. One of our children has a chronic illness (an autoimmune disease) and misses school due to hospitalizations, etc. I am wondering if anyone has experience with having a student (High School age) who has a similar situation.
More specifically: What supports did the high school provide to your child to help catch up with missed instruction? Mostly interested in high school age, because managing this was quite easy when our child was younger. Not so much homework, and classes not so challenging. Now, as a junior in high school, if she misses chemistry or algebra 2--I am pretty much useless in providing the "re-teaching" at home that I could do when she was younger. Online classes are an option I know, but pulling her out of school is so incredibly isolating. We did it last year, and it was great academically as she could get ahead when she was well or catch up when she is well, etc. However, emotionally, its a terrible thing to do to a teenager. Anyone have any experience?? Thank you! |
Anonymous
| You should have an IEP for your student which outlines what can and will be done for your child. |
Anonymous
| Actually it would not be an IEP, but a 504. There may be help as far as tutoring/homebound instruction for times she is out. Contact the counselor at your school, they will know best. |
Anonymous
Thanks-I am super familiar with IEPs and 504s. My daughter has both, I've been to 60 IEP meetings since she was 7 
However, in previous school system where we moved from, the IEP teams have never been able to come up with accomodations which actually addressed the missing curriculum aspect and havent ever been able to think up ways to keep her up with her classmates. For example, if she misses school for 2 days, sending home "notes" does not help when she misses a 90 minute lecture for 2 days-she just cannot learn from some abbreviated notes, it cant replace the lecture. Thats why she wound up in online classes last year--they ran out of ideas and so havng her pulled entirely from school was the only thing anyone could think of. Great idea academically-awful idea emotionally. With a kid who is already dealing with an illness, the last thing they should also have to deal with is being pulled from school, a place of friends, and normalcy. Now we are here in VA, new school district and thats what I am asking-whether anyone has an IEP/504 that has accomodations for a chronically ill high schooler which addresses this problem. Im interested in any ideas to bring to an IEP meeting to get her back in school where she belongs, but provide her support to help her when she misses classes. Thanks to anyone who might have an IEP or 504 that works....would help to know what types of accomodations/services you have that help make your student able to attend school Thanks! |
Anonymous
| I'm pretty sure one of my daughter's friends had a homebound teacher for a while when she was in high school. |
Anonymous
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I was in HS in FCPS with a raging autoimmune disease years ago, so I can commiserate.
How would she do with a modified/shortened day? Or maybe a combination of online and in-school courses? There is really no easy system to accomodate for hospitalizations, but you may be able to ease the day-to-day. |
Anonymous
Thing is, she really does not need a modified or shortened day. When she is well, she's well--and she can go to school like everyone else. The issue is only when she gets sick, and when she does, she tends to miss about a week or two. And its very hard to say how often that will be--sometimes it is twice during a school year, sometimes is is much more often. Its so unpredictable.... Even missing a week, its brutal in high school. She comes back to school and she has so much work to make up its almost impossible--and she has missed all of the lectures and everything. And then on top of it, the class is just cruising ahead--and she has to keep up with current work, too. its not possible. In Baltimore, they have a very formal program for chronically ill kids, which includes recorded classes and webcams, etc. I was hoping there was something similar here, or at least supports like that were common in this area for sick kids. Everyone told me how amazing the schools were here (I guess that means for a non-special needs kid..?.), and I guess I expected how much worse could it be than where we came from, it could only get better...she got basically no help where we came from. But today, we went for a very informal meeting at the school, and I was looked at so blankly and I thought, oh no..... Hopefully when we have our more formal meeting with the right person at the school I will get a better feeling. Today I got very worried, just from the look on the person's face that we met with. |
Anonymous
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I have zero experience with what you're talking about but with the ease of technology today, seems like getting lectures recorded or skyped wouldn't be asking too much. I hope you are able to work out such an accomodation.
Good luck. p.s. -- I feel for you b/c I had a child who would have had chronic medical problems had she lived. I empathize. |
Anonymous
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OP,
Fairfax County has Assistive Technology personnel who help kids with disabilities access the curriculum. I know your child doesn't have a disability, but you might ask for someone from that department to come to the IEP/504 meeting to explore if there are any technologies that can be used to help her keep up remotely while she is out. |
Anonymous
Thank you! Great idea. I will do that. |
Anonymous
I am so sorry. Many, many times when we sit in the hospital I look around and thank god we are there. Honestly. And that's a damn hard feeling to muster when your child is suffering. But because we are there, it means our daughter is still with us, and that reality is not lost on me. I have spent too much time in the hospital ward with way too many parents who we joke around about being "the usual customers" in the ward, who I one day realize haven't been back. I hope someday, somehow you find some peace, somehow. |
Anonymous
| In FCPS I would get a formal statement about this to present when needed. The teachers are not informed and they will take action on their own. You need paperwork to get by here. |
Anonymous
| My best friend got Lyme disease in (an fcps) high school. This was about 6 yrs ago. Coming to school regularly was similarly difficult for her. What they ended up doing was enrolling her in academic classes online and electives in-school. So she was able to do the academic stuff at her own pace, but still take some classes. I believe she did gym, drama, and Spanish in school, all of which were no big deal when she missed (her mom spoke Spanish and could help her on that front). Eventually she also took nvcc courses in conjunction with the in school stuff. |
Anonymous
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I would look into assistive tech. I subbed for a math teacher who made a video of himself narrating how to do problems while recording his actions on an Interactive Whiteboard.
I'm a teacher and I'm thinking I should record my writing lessons because kids really have trouble when they are absent. I would also look into Khan academy videos whenever she misses math topics. That should help fill in the gap. There is so much available with videos and podcasting that teachers can do themselves. Not all teachers are going to be receptive, but some might. |
Anonymous
| Contact guidance. My mother in a similar district tutored ill children (short like mono and long term like seizures that required children to miss extended or short periods of high school that could vary a lot. The teachers would send the list of assignments to the guidance counselor and the school would pay and coordinate to have my mother (who was a lower grade teacher) come and administer tests and teach the math lessons missed. |