Help A Child Return To School After Being Diagnosed With Cancer
For The Hospitalized Child
- Maintain active contact with the student (phone calls/letters/recorded messages)
- Provide classroom opportunities for students to understand their classmate's illness and treatment
- Arrange for the school reentry team to make a classroom presentation (if possible)
- Send classroom/school cards/greetings to the student
- Include the student in classroom activities
- Keep other classmates updated with the child's progress, when appropriate
- Provide opportunities for the child to participate or contribute to classroom projects
- Allow older students and adolescents to determine "what" and "how much" information can be shared with classmates
- Assist and communicate with the student's tutor
- Provide distance learning via computer/video camera, when available
For The Child's Return (General)
- Invite the School Intervention and Re-Entry Team's for a Faculty Presentation and/or Classroom Presentation
- Review the Student's Individualized Educational Plan, "I.E.P." , if applicable
- Discuss comprehensive evaluation with the child's parents if warranted. (Children with cancer are covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and/or 504 of the Rehabilitation Act "other health impairment")
- Communicate with student/staff/parents/health care team
- Prepare classmates for the student's return (changes in appearance: weight gain or loss, scars, casts, wheelchairs etc.) via the School Intervention and Re-Entry's Team Classroom Presentation
- Maintain contact with Parents (daily logs, phone calls, progress reports)
Classroom Accommodations
- Determine which educational accommodations would be appropriate (e.g. extended test time, extended completion time, fewer assignments, separate testing area)
- Determine what classroom accommodations would be appropriate (e.g. preferential seating, access to hydrations and snacks, second set of books)
- Implement modifications, be sure not to single the student out, do not place unnecessary restrictions
- Offer innovative learning strategies (e.g. audio recordings to assist with reading)
- Provide adequate time to transfer from class to class (elevator pass, 5 minute hall pass, or book/backpack buddy if necessary)
- Anticipate poor handwriting due to medications that cause neuropathy (defecits in both sensory and motor function)
- Help organize the student's notebook, keep log of daily assignments
- Use the "buddy system" to review assignments
- Allow the student to wear hats, bandannas, hair pieces (waive the no cap policy)
- Offer the student a quiet place to rest, if needed
- If necessary, modify physical education class