Showing posts with label 504. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 504. Show all posts
Back to School
For the first time, diabetes wasn't a big back to school issue here.
All of the forms from the endocrinologist were filled out, signed and turned in to the nurse in June.
There were no treatment or equipment changes over the summer to educate the school staff about.
We packed up the bag of supplies and checked it twice.
It's been our tradition to drop off the supplies a day or two before school starts. This visit has always included at least a quick check-in with the nurse and until 6th grade with teachers as well. We go over any changes from the previous year and answer any questions.
This year we had only one free morning during the two days when staff were in the building for meetings and setting up. We learned the nurse might not be available when we arrived. She was not. We left the well-labeled bag in the office. We missed saying 'hello' and exchanging pleasantries about the summer. Otherwise we had no concerns about not meeting face to face.
The nurse has not yet needed to call home.
Reports are good about lunch. She's sitting with friends of her choice, and she's finishing in time to go outside with everyone else.
There have been no classroom-related diabetes concerns.
This appears to be a non-story until it's put in perspective.
Seven years ago this same girl started Kindergarten. The preparation was extensive. We spent hours in the nurse's office reviewing every detail of the care she needed. We met with every teacher who would come in contact with my daughter. The nurse, my daughter and I took turns quelling each other's anxieties. My daughter was tiny and needed help with every aspect of her care. She needed staff to watch for signs of low blood sugars, and to make sure she was eating all of her food, and that she wasn't accepting food from others. The other elementary school years were progressively easier, but we still had an annual meeting with the primary teacher and the nurse.
Two years ago we spent time settling in to the middle school. There was a new nurse. My daughter encountered a minimum of seven teachers every day. There was a new lunchroom to navigate and a new schedule to adapt to. It took time and energy develop a good diabetes routine and a good working relationship with the new set of staff. Last year was certainly simpler, but a few things had changed and we spent a little time in the health office making sure we were on the same page.
It's amazing to look back and realize how much my daughter has learned to do for herself in the past seven years. She needs significantly less hands-on help from the school nurse or her teachers. It's reassuring to see how our hard work building relationships with and communicating with the schools has paid off. We have a thorough 504 plan, an excellent nurse, and a staff who has been well-educated by that nurse.
We don't know what next year will bring; and I'm sure the high school transition will bring its own collection of tasks and challenges. Right now, I'm just going to be grateful that this year's start was easy.
504 Resources
Last week I met with our school's 504 team and finalized my daughter's plan for this year. In the past these meetings were somewhat routine. Going into a new school, with a more complicated schedule and a whole new cast of characters, I felt it important to do my homework and enter the process prepared.
Below are a few resources which might be helpful to parents who are entering the 504 process for the first time, or who are looking to make some significant changes or updates to one which is in place:
The American Diabetes Association has a Safe At School campaign. This includes a publication which they will send to you and/or your school. It provides comprehensive information about all kinds of diabetes issues which could arise and ways to handle them. The Safe At School section of the website provides links to additional staff training resources as well as sample 504 plans, and good advice about working with staff to obtain the best support for your child at school. There is also a very thorough section on legal resources. It explains channels through which to proceed should you be unable to secure a 504 plan for your child, or secure the reasonable accommodations you wish to have in there. Also helpful is a directory of applicable state laws which relate to diabetes in school.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation puts out a 'School Advisory Toolkit'. It comes as a hard copy from your local chapter, or is easily requested to download yourself. It contains an overview of the 504 laws and practical information to help put one in place at your school for your child. There are helpful samples of 504 accommodations as well as sample forms for different circumstances, such as one for a teacher to leave for substitutes.
Both ADA and JDRF have helpful back to school webcasts which can be viewed anytime through their websites.
Children With Diabetes has a page on Diabetes At School. It contains links to a multitude of resources. These include sample plans and forms, legal information, SAT testing rules and advice, and links to a variety of publications and websites which also deal with this issue. Unique to Children With Diabetes is the opportunity to look at past polls, message board conversations and ask the expert results around this issue. Reading how real-life situations have been resolved can be helpful in brainstorming solutions for your own.
A common theme throughout these resources bears repeating and emphasizing. Taking the time to make sure school staff understand a bit about Type 1 Diabetes will go a long way. Educate staff about the effects and dangers of high and low blood sugars and the process of keeping them at bay. Explain, with examples if you possibly can, how diabetes has affected your child's school day in the past. Use this information as the basis for making your requests regarding how your child's diabetes is handled at school.
Our 504 process ended with a mutually agreeable plan. More importantly, it ended with our school's staff having a better understanding of Type 1 Diabetes. Most importantly, it ended with an understanding that my daughter, the school's staff, our doctors, my husband and I are a team working together to keep my daughter's diabetes from getting in the way of a good education.
Below are a few resources which might be helpful to parents who are entering the 504 process for the first time, or who are looking to make some significant changes or updates to one which is in place:
The American Diabetes Association has a Safe At School campaign. This includes a publication which they will send to you and/or your school. It provides comprehensive information about all kinds of diabetes issues which could arise and ways to handle them. The Safe At School section of the website provides links to additional staff training resources as well as sample 504 plans, and good advice about working with staff to obtain the best support for your child at school. There is also a very thorough section on legal resources. It explains channels through which to proceed should you be unable to secure a 504 plan for your child, or secure the reasonable accommodations you wish to have in there. Also helpful is a directory of applicable state laws which relate to diabetes in school.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation puts out a 'School Advisory Toolkit'. It comes as a hard copy from your local chapter, or is easily requested to download yourself. It contains an overview of the 504 laws and practical information to help put one in place at your school for your child. There are helpful samples of 504 accommodations as well as sample forms for different circumstances, such as one for a teacher to leave for substitutes.
Both ADA and JDRF have helpful back to school webcasts which can be viewed anytime through their websites.
Children With Diabetes has a page on Diabetes At School. It contains links to a multitude of resources. These include sample plans and forms, legal information, SAT testing rules and advice, and links to a variety of publications and websites which also deal with this issue. Unique to Children With Diabetes is the opportunity to look at past polls, message board conversations and ask the expert results around this issue. Reading how real-life situations have been resolved can be helpful in brainstorming solutions for your own.
A common theme throughout these resources bears repeating and emphasizing. Taking the time to make sure school staff understand a bit about Type 1 Diabetes will go a long way. Educate staff about the effects and dangers of high and low blood sugars and the process of keeping them at bay. Explain, with examples if you possibly can, how diabetes has affected your child's school day in the past. Use this information as the basis for making your requests regarding how your child's diabetes is handled at school.
Our 504 process ended with a mutually agreeable plan. More importantly, it ended with our school's staff having a better understanding of Type 1 Diabetes. Most importantly, it ended with an understanding that my daughter, the school's staff, our doctors, my husband and I are a team working together to keep my daughter's diabetes from getting in the way of a good education.
No D Day...Ha!
George over at Ninjabetic organized yesterday's 'No D Day' event. Diabetes bloggers were, for a day, to imagine that diabetes was not in the picture and to write about something else dear to their hearts. The latter was accomplished. The part about imagining there was no diabetes...no such luck.
It was a diabetes-heavy day. The school guidance counselor was busy pulling out my daughter's 504 plan. The e-mail came mid-morning, requesting a meeting this week to review its contents. This was followed by a flurry of activity. The meeting was set up. I dug out last year's version for review. I spent time on the phone with another diabetes mom from the school, comparing notes. I carefully considered both independently and with my daughter what needed to be changed in this year's plan.
As I was out photographing my zinnias, the phone rang. A pseudo-low blood sugar had sidetracked my daughter on the way to lunch. What was my opinion on treating it? A burst of diabetes-math resulted in a solution.
Envisioning the busy week stretching ahead of us, it became clear that our annual JDRF walk letter needed to be worked on yesterday as well. My daughter and I collaborated on it after school. Some serious diabetes conversation ensued, followed by a site change.
I love the concept of No D Day. It reminds us that we are multi-faceted people, with wide ranging interests. It reminds us of our hope for future days and years and lifetimes without diabetes.
Until then, it's always there, and it's rarely up to us when it will demand our full attention. Meanwhile, I'll settle for laughing at the irony of its intrusion on my No D Day, and go outside to weed my flower garden.
It was a diabetes-heavy day. The school guidance counselor was busy pulling out my daughter's 504 plan. The e-mail came mid-morning, requesting a meeting this week to review its contents. This was followed by a flurry of activity. The meeting was set up. I dug out last year's version for review. I spent time on the phone with another diabetes mom from the school, comparing notes. I carefully considered both independently and with my daughter what needed to be changed in this year's plan.
As I was out photographing my zinnias, the phone rang. A pseudo-low blood sugar had sidetracked my daughter on the way to lunch. What was my opinion on treating it? A burst of diabetes-math resulted in a solution.
Envisioning the busy week stretching ahead of us, it became clear that our annual JDRF walk letter needed to be worked on yesterday as well. My daughter and I collaborated on it after school. Some serious diabetes conversation ensued, followed by a site change.
I love the concept of No D Day. It reminds us that we are multi-faceted people, with wide ranging interests. It reminds us of our hope for future days and years and lifetimes without diabetes.
Until then, it's always there, and it's rarely up to us when it will demand our full attention. Meanwhile, I'll settle for laughing at the irony of its intrusion on my No D Day, and go outside to weed my flower garden.
Brunch?
The fifth grade eats lunch at 10:17 a.m.
"Most of my friends don't seem to mind," was the report.
My daughter minds. A lot. Because she's a normal person.
Her response to the problem is our challenge.
The first day, she ate most of her lunch. The second day she ended up in the nurse's office chugging a juice box since she'd bolused the carbs and then decided she couldn't finish.
Over the weekend, the lunch issue became an all-consuming, awful problem in the way problems do best when you're in middle school. All of the anxiety about every aspect of this new school experience was funneled into the lunch predicament and there was no possible solution.
By day three, she had herself so worked up about it that she was sick to her stomach.
Thankfully she's pumping, so we have some flexibility in eating patterns. But from a regular-people perspective, she has to eat something between 7:40 a.m. and 2:52 p.m., and keep it down.
While she's got flexibility, she's used to eating regular meals on a regular schedule. It's likely that while the pump allows for different mealtimes, a regular eating pattern makes it easier to keep her blood sugar more stable. Perhaps most significantly, it's her preference (which isn't really odd at all) to eat lunch at noon-ish and small snacks between meals.
Yes, she has her 504 plan which would allow her to eat anytime. But she can't eat while practicing the keyboard during music class. Or while trying to do weather experiments in science. And, along with every other middle school child, she doesn't want to be 'different' any more than she has to be. So we seek a way to make this schedule work.
Our next experiment is two snacks. One at 10:17, and one at 2, when all 5th graders are allowed to snack if they need to. A generous policy to make up for the ridiculous lunchtime. She can then have another substantial 'snack' when she returns home.
Today the anxiety seemed to be dissipating a bit. Yesterday she ate her two snacks and spent the whole lunch period with friends instead of the nurse.
Perhaps an omlette station in the cafeteria would help.
"Most of my friends don't seem to mind," was the report.
My daughter minds. A lot. Because she's a normal person.
Her response to the problem is our challenge.
The first day, she ate most of her lunch. The second day she ended up in the nurse's office chugging a juice box since she'd bolused the carbs and then decided she couldn't finish.
Over the weekend, the lunch issue became an all-consuming, awful problem in the way problems do best when you're in middle school. All of the anxiety about every aspect of this new school experience was funneled into the lunch predicament and there was no possible solution.
By day three, she had herself so worked up about it that she was sick to her stomach.
Thankfully she's pumping, so we have some flexibility in eating patterns. But from a regular-people perspective, she has to eat something between 7:40 a.m. and 2:52 p.m., and keep it down.
While she's got flexibility, she's used to eating regular meals on a regular schedule. It's likely that while the pump allows for different mealtimes, a regular eating pattern makes it easier to keep her blood sugar more stable. Perhaps most significantly, it's her preference (which isn't really odd at all) to eat lunch at noon-ish and small snacks between meals.
Yes, she has her 504 plan which would allow her to eat anytime. But she can't eat while practicing the keyboard during music class. Or while trying to do weather experiments in science. And, along with every other middle school child, she doesn't want to be 'different' any more than she has to be. So we seek a way to make this schedule work.
Our next experiment is two snacks. One at 10:17, and one at 2, when all 5th graders are allowed to snack if they need to. A generous policy to make up for the ridiculous lunchtime. She can then have another substantial 'snack' when she returns home.
Today the anxiety seemed to be dissipating a bit. Yesterday she ate her two snacks and spent the whole lunch period with friends instead of the nurse.
Perhaps an omlette station in the cafeteria would help.
The 504 vs. The Details
My daughter's 504 plan works in conjunction with her medical plan sent to the school by the endocrinologist. It lays out 'accommodations' which protect her from being discriminated against because of her health, and it provides her with accommodations for situations in which her healthcare needs get in the way of her academic ones. The 504 and medical plan work together to provide information and guidelines for staff, and medical orders for the nurse to follow in assisting with her care.
The 504 plan addresses big picture items like being allowed extra time on tests in the event of low or high blood sugar and being allowed access to water and the bathroom at any time.
At the start of the school year, though, it's the little logistical issues which require attention. The existence of the 504 plan allows us to address these without argument, but they would seem ridiculous as bullet points on the acutal document.
We were fortunate at the elementary school to feel we really didn't need a 504 plan. It was a small school with wonderful staff who valued the individuality of each child. They would not let my daughter's diabetes come between her and a full school experience. We chose to implement the 504 in first grade not because of any concerns, but because of how well things were going. We wanted to put what was happening in writing so it would follow her through her whole school career.
It's our hope that we will feel the same at the middle school. But it's comforting to know that, should an argument arise, there's a document to back up my daughter's right to available chocolate-covered pretzels.
The 504 plan addresses big picture items like being allowed extra time on tests in the event of low or high blood sugar and being allowed access to water and the bathroom at any time.
At the start of the school year, though, it's the little logistical issues which require attention. The existence of the 504 plan allows us to address these without argument, but they would seem ridiculous as bullet points on the acutal document.
- Student may leave math textbook and snack in nurse's office to eliminate need to return to locker between gym and math.
- Student may store chocolate covered pretzels in nurse's office in case of unexpected birthday celebration.
- Student may check out books first during library time to allow sufficient time to check blood sugar before lunch.
We were fortunate at the elementary school to feel we really didn't need a 504 plan. It was a small school with wonderful staff who valued the individuality of each child. They would not let my daughter's diabetes come between her and a full school experience. We chose to implement the 504 in first grade not because of any concerns, but because of how well things were going. We wanted to put what was happening in writing so it would follow her through her whole school career.
It's our hope that we will feel the same at the middle school. But it's comforting to know that, should an argument arise, there's a document to back up my daughter's right to available chocolate-covered pretzels.
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