Info on 504/medical plans

[susiestar]

I KNOW 504's are hard to enforce. But it is the only option that we seem to have with regard to Jessie.

She has Absence epilepsy, migraines, IBS, and gets EVERY virus that comes down the pike.

The school says that a doctor note saying she has migraines is nice, but they still want/need a note every time seh is absent. Also every time seh vomits they want a doctor's note. If she doesn't get her midrin with-in 10 minutes of the onset of a migraine, or it is there when she wakes up, she has to stay home for 24 hours. And they have to have a doctor's note that she is staying home due to vomiting.

I am SOOO tempted to pull her out and homeschool. BUT she loves it, and my health is not going to make it a great success (homeschooling).

What kind of leverage/rules/laws can apply here to help with the attendance issues?

I do NOT keep her home unless I KNOW (as in I SEE) she is vomiting. For migraines I try my darnedest to get her to school. But I am feeling pretty hopeless here.

If her grades are fine (and they are) but she misses another day, they will flunk her, even with a doctor's note!!!! THis is what the latest letter says.

Should I ask for homebound options, other things?

I don't know what to ASK for in this plan. It has taken me 15 phone calls to even get to talk to the nurse who does the plans. And she has only had this job for 4 weeks, so she doesnn't know the laws, just what the school district says.

Thanks!

 

[everywoman]

There should be someone in the district office that oversees homebound. Call special services. Our special service director oversees homebound---we have a special district person who handles all the paperwork. We also have one teacher at school who organizes all the stuff within the school. Here, at the hs level, we offer 1 to 1 1/2 hours of services for each day missed depending on the rigor of the courses being taken. If someone is taking PreCal, English, Spanish, and AP Bio they need more time than someone taking PE, Math 1, Home-Easy Child, and Geography.

 

[dreamer]

did you mean to post this here in the insurance forum, or did you mean to post in the Special Education forum?

I had difficulty with similar issues here, and our docs got very sick of being asked for notes after they had explained time and again to the school. We did have an IEP and had something written into the IEP, that did help a little, but, even then it still was not great. For a short time our school nurse had this idea that we STILL should bring difficult child to school, and SHE would "decide" if difficult child was well enough to attend. I did NOT go with that and neither did our doctor.
We also had a kind of opposite thing, doctor cleared son for school, but daily school sent him home post eye surgery and post recovery, even months later- school kept demanding us to get confirmation he did not have pink eye, altho they had all kinds of notes and records from eye surgeon and school KNEW my sons eye was pink-red due to scar tissue. It was in my so IEP and everything, but school wanted to mess with us. 3 or 4 times a week, they would grab my son and take him to office and call me to tell me I HAD to come get him NNOW to take him over to ER and bring back documentation that he did not have pink eye. Of course, then they would also use those absences to say "look he cannot keep up" but it was them sending him out of school.

And then, here was the topper. easy child got to school and got stung by a bee there. She then began to not be able to breathe, (that never happened to her before) School called me to ask what to do, I said well, is she haveing trouble breathing? They said she says so.I said well gosh, CALL 9-1-1 duh. They said well we are not the school nurse, I said well so what? If she is haveing trouble breathing.....
SO they called 91-1. easy child went to ER in ambulance from school. I met easy child at ER. and ER gave her a shot, and after a bit, easy child wanted to go back to school. ER said OK, and I dropped easy child and ER note back at school. A few mins after I dropped her off with her ER note, school called me to ask me if *I* would excuse PCs absence from the morning. Turns out, school said even tho easy child left in an ambulance from class...and even tho she had a note from ER.....*I* still had to approve the absence. If I didn't - then easy child was going to get in trouble and be suspended for truancy, for cutting those classes while she was at ER, Yeesh. easy child had perfect attendance to that point.

 

[susiestar]

I did mean to post in Special Education forum. If the moderator could move this I would greatly appreciate it.

I am very confused by the school. Today we forced her to go even though her back is very sore. I refused to go pick her up at lunch when she called. I had a migraine and she really NEEDS to be in school. The real kicker is that she LOVES school. Not just likes it, LOVES it. But she said she cried in 3 classes because it hurt so bad.

I can't afford to keep taking her to the doctor every week. I do believe she is in pain, I just don't know how to help her.

She does ice packs, heat packs (depending on why we think she is hurting), aleve, a mild muscle relaxer (both medications per doctor orders), migraine medicine, and I am just at a loss.

I am going to call the school board tomorrow. It will take a month to get a real live person to talk to, but I will persevere.

Thanks for the support.

dreamer - I am very sorry the school put your kids through so much grief. it is senseless.

 

[katya02]

I'm chiming in late here, but what our family doctor did, when my easy child 2 son was having multiple absences with migraines, was to write a letter to the school giving easy child 2's diagnosis, the fact that he was under continuing medical treatment for the condition, and saying that the doctor trusted me, the mom, to make the medical judgment of when easy child 2 needed to stay home due to a migraine. After that the school accepted notes from me. We had had a letter about easy child 2 failing due to too many absences as well, which was nuts ... he was 2nd in his class at the high school. We checked with the school board and medically excused absences are not counted when considering whether to pass or fail a student. You might check on this in your district. Also, did I understand correctly that the school NURSE does the 504 plans? Umm ... this sort of thing is normally done with the Special Education people who know the law, using information provided by your child's doctors. The nurse should receive a copy of the 504 plan but she shouldn't be writing it.

 

[Sheila]

Sorry I missed your post earlier.

 

[smallworld]

Susie, how many migraines is she getting per week or month? Is she on a migraine preventive?

 

[slsh]

Susie - this is ridiculous, obviously.

I'd request an IEP since the *school* is requiring medical "evaluation" in the form of a note from a physician for every absence in spite of the fact that her migraines etc. are well documented. Medical services are a related service, ergo the need for an IEP. Since SD is placing this undue burden (in my humble opinion) on you, I'd advise them they are responsible for payment for these related medical services.

From Wrightslaw:

Medical Services

Medical services are considered a related service only under specific conditions. By definition, the term "means services provided by a licensed physician to determine a child's medically related disability that results in the child's need for special education and related services" [Section 300.24(b)(4)]. Thus, medical services are provided (a) by a licensed physician, and (b) for diagnostic or evaluation purposes only.​

They are requiring her "evaluation" - they can pay.​

Boo's medical plan basically spelled out the specifics if he seized - symptoms prior to and during seizure, treatment and who was responsible to provide it (he has a 1:1 nurse in school), who calls 911, who calls me, etc. People involved in developing the plan were school nurse, his 1:1, as well as the entire IEP team.​