Reply to 504 for teen w depression?

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Reply to "504 for teen w depression?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You should make sure an actually trained therapist is on board with any accomodations. Generally with depression you don’t want to accomodate counter-therepeutic behavior like missing school. [/quote]

Our DC had seasonal depression. Therapist was totally on board with missing first period, as well as missing school for all therapy and psychiatry appointments.  Missing school to take care of your health, deal with symptoms of an illness or side effects of a medication, or to accommodate a disability is not "counter-therapeutic behavior" and no reputable therapist would suggest that.

DC had the following accommodations - "hand scheduling", extra time and extended deadlines on all assignments and deadlines. Flash pass to nurse or bathroom.  Ability to call me and ask to leave school.  DC missed all or part of school 80 times in one year.  Instead of "missing" first period, she asked a teacher in a subject of interest if she could be a TA in his class and explained that she would miss frequently in the winter.  Accommodations allowed her to keep up and maintain her mental health.

No contact with security guards was an accommodation I had wish we asked for because they were constantly hassling her on late arrival even with a parental note.  It was discriminatory and unhelpful.

Teachers were mostly cooperative, but some violated her medical privacy and a few others were "suspicious" that she was "faking it" and would follow her around school to see what else she was doing to try and prove that if she had enough energy to do X she was lying about not being able to do Y.  Another teacher would check DC's attendance record and refuse to accept assignments turned in late but in compliance with the 504 accommodation for extended deadline. The teacher would berate DC and say "you were in Mr. X's class in the morning so there's no reason you couldn't attend mine and turn in the assignment, I won't accept it."

The non-cooperation of the school was traumatizing for her and made recovery more difficult. I supported her by writing letters of complaint and officially calling out teachers when they violated the 504.

HS was rough but accommodations allowed DC to complete work and stay in the advanced classes and maintain the good grades she had been getting her whole life, which was important to her.

Believe it or not, college was much easier - she could set her own schedule to work around the seasonal depression, the severity of which was exacerbated by the rigidity of HS situation IMO. 
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