Does anyone have any experience to share with regard to cooperation from/with school and teachers?  We had a very hard time getting teachers at our high school to create fair opportunities for make up exams, even though we have an IEP.  Certain teachers looked for every loopole in the wording of the accommodations and did not really teach the content that was missed during KLS episode so this made it very difficult for everyone.  Teachers gave zeros for exams he missed and this translated to “f” on a progress report when he had an “A” in the class pre-episode.  I would like to know what kind of accommodations others have written in the IEP and also what attitudes you have encountered during implementation. 

Secondarily, what have you experienced with return of short term memory and how does this play into the return to school?

Thanks and I look forward to your responses.
Gaylene

I’ve had a heck of a time with my son’s school as they haven’t followed the IEP or the 504.  Like you son’s teachers, they look for the loopholes and give them bad grades for something these kids can not control.  My son is younger but what I did was the last time we saw his neurologist, we discussed this and he kind of laughed and pulled out his prescription pad.  He wrote Ty two prescriptions.  One was to get his homework earlier so he would have it over the weekend to accomplish and the other prescription was for a nap.  If he fell asleep at school, they couldn’t mark him down and if he was out due to sleeping, they couldn’t mark him down or give him any zeros.  He had it all written out with direct orders and when I brought it into the office they looked at me like I had three heads.  I just smiled and said, “Considering this is a legal prescription, I fully expect the doctor’s orders to be followed.  If you have any questions, please direct them to his neurologist as he has written out numerous phone numbers where you can reach them!  Have a great day!”  I have never had ANY issues with them at all regarding that.  In fact, about a week prior to school ending the school called for more information on Tyler.  They have everything they need to know.  I questioned her as to why they needed such things and they said “To add to his plan.”  I told her they never followed it to begin with and the prescriptions worked just fine for me because that’s all they’ve ever followed.  She said ok and that was the end of that.

If your son has more than one teacher then it might be a bit harder but you could always make a copy of the Rx and give it to each teacher.  It may be a pain in the rear end for them but who cares.  This is your child and you need to do what is best for him.  Good luck.

Hi,

I’m in Canada so I’m not too familiar with IEP or 504, but I’m assuming theyre some sort of disability accomodation letter for school?  For me, my teachers in high school were all very good, I worked mostly with the school guidance counsellor/capp teacher, who let all my teachers know.  In the end, I ended up stopping school all together becuase of so much missed etc, but for the times I’d missed too much class in a short amount of time, the teachers would usually tell me not to write certain questions on the exam or give me a new exam all together.  When I would go into an episode, my mom would call into the school and tell the secretaries I would be away for the week, who would then let the guidance counsellor know, who would go to all my teachers, getting homework/lesson plans for the week.  If i needed extra help when I got back, things were fine.  Although I had to make up the work, and not fall further behind, it was stressful catching up, but when the teachers are accomodating, things are much less stressful.

As far as short term memory and getting back to school after an episode… I find the hardest thing is making sure my head was ‘totally clear’ before trying school again.  Also, things were just a little bit slow and delayed after an episode, but after about half a week to a week or so, the cobwebs were cleared and I was A-ok.  I also found that when returning to school ...i need to take lots of breaks to give my ‘head a rest’ ...just so its not an overload that throws me into another episode…  Hope this helps, and I hope that you can get help with the teacher accomodation stuff.

Dear Tannis,

Thank you for the reply and yes, this helps a lot.  Wouldn’t it be great if all teachers were understanding and willing to help when one is returning to school after an episode.  We are having a hard time figuring out why someone would take an attitude contrary to that but the world is far from perfect. 

it is interesting to hear that you also feel fuzzy for a week or so and the suggestion of frequent breaks during re-entry is a good one.  So, if the episode is about 2 weeks and then the re-entry is another week then the real time missed from school is about 3 weeks, which is a lot to make up.  I think that was part of the problem.  When returning, three weeks of work to be made up on top of the regular content and that is just a huge task for anyone!  That kind of stress is definitely big and bad enough to trigger another round.  What a catch 22!!!  How much time did you take off from school?  Did you miss a semester, a year?  How did you handle that?

Hope you are doing well right now.
Gaylene

hey,
i am 16 years old and i was attending school up until december 5th 2008 as i have several episodes every 6-8 weeks roughly.i live in england and my mum has had meetings with the school as i have missed so much i couldnt keep up as i can not function properly after an episode i am now getting work sent to me and have someone come to my house for 2 hours a week and they are going to help me catch up help me with what i find hard etc i will hopefully be sitting exams in a few months.my mum had some trouble getting the teachers to understand why i was not in school as often as i should be,when my mum had meetings etc they are eventually helping us get me into education.

Sarah