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Homebound Schooling


mully2014

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Wow! I would've never picture me at this point even after I had missed school for a few months from getting my third concussion from fainting.

I NEED advice on what I should do... I'm having the same problems with my syncope but now I'm much more fatigued. I have an IEP on Friday and my mom gave me the idea of doing some homebound schooling like partial days or choosing a day of the week that I wouldn't go in to school.

I'm to this point because of the extreme fatigue and because I miss so much school. As soon as I seem to catch up on the schoolwork I miss school again. Especially with all of my concussions if I get my head hit I could end up out of school for a couple of weeks.

What are some peoples experience with this? I'm really stuck on what I should do here! Thanks!

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The school social worker actually just came to my house today to tell me about homebound schooling. While we were trying to get a diagnosis of what is wrong with me I missed the first half of the school year. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to do either- there are many options. I will probably do homebound in some of my classes until I feel well enough to go back. I will do online classes for the rest of the classes for now. I also have to withdraw from two classes because I missed too much and make them up over the summer :(. I know how hard and stressful it is. I miss my friends and all my plans for an advanced diploma are out the window. I hope everything goes well for you. :)

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I should have my daughter talk with you guys. She's in the same boat with you right now. She first became ill in 07' and has always been in school,even if it was for a few hours. Last year, she was in almost full time and feeling great.She began this year full time until Oct. when she became extremely fatigued, dizzy, and bad headaches. She just started homebound this week. Her doctor is hopeful that she won't be down for long. I'm just hoping that we can get some of her symptoms dealt with so she can at least go back part-time.

Another option we may check in to is online classes. She really wants to graduate on time but I guess that will depend on what happens in the next few months.

Hang in there!

Brenda

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My son is now a junior and has only attended school for a little over a month since the middle of 8th grade. He tried to return again in November and made it only a few days before crashing again(weather and medication change). He has taken all of his classes through homebound and on line courses. Once you get a routine, it is all quite do-able. He took art appreciation, music, and even speech and debate on line. He is currently on schedule to graduate on time, even with the several set backs he has had.

Christy

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My daughter was homebound for 2 1/2 years, but we were very lucky to have a receptive school district willing to work with us. Instead of classifying my daughter as 504, the school suggested "other health impaired" classification to better protect her for absences and testing (even though she had been in gifted classes). As my daughter improved, we worked out a process where if she felt good, she would go to school. Her homebound teacher coordinated all homework and tests since my daughter was not on the class rolls.

One important issue to get across with the teachers is to omit the "busy work". Your homework needs to be limited to what it takes to understand the subject matter. If my daughter understood her math homework by doing every third problem, then that was adequate for her teacher.

The first eighteen months were horrible - half the time she missed homebound. She was in and out of the hospital for migraines. Homebound sessions were conducted in bed. An occipital nerve stimulator implant improved her migraines. She was eventually able to attend school in spurts. In her IEP, she always had a "buddy" walk with her because she passed out by herself in the bathroom.

Our school always offered hardcopies of notes because of the brain fog. The principal was going to try to video tape the lessons - but we never got that to work right.

My daughter was diagnosed when she was 10 years old. She finally started improving when she was 14. She is now back in school full time and is on the swim team. She still has insomnia, migraines, and pots flares but is back in GT classes. Two years ago I never imagined she would ever be able to attend school. So I want to offer you some hope.

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I had my IEP meeting today and it took about 2 hours! We discussed lots of things and got a lot figured out. They did decide that if my work load needed to be modified that would be fine. I have finals coming up soon but I will not have to take some of them or maybe any of them. Make-up work for when I miss school related to my condition won't have to be done. Most of the people there were very accepting with this plan but as always someone didn't. Unfortunately my general education teacher that attended the meeting made me cry. She said that it should be my job and not any of the teachers job to communicate with me about school work. And went on to say I need to take responsibility. The other people were mad with these comments which reassures me that I wasn't over-reacting. The good thing is that next semester I won't have this teacher anymore. Thanks for all your support!

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Oh my gosh, my social worker and counselor said those exact words too- about how it was my responsibilty. When I met with her the other day I got a lot of good information too but I felt like she was "guilt triping" me. She said I should have been working harder while we were trying to get me a diagnosis. I'm sorry she made you cry :( . I felt like crying when my meeting was over. Unfortunately, I have to work with this lady because she is the homebound schooling coordinator.

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Puppylove:

I'm so sorry that you have to work with someone that doesn't seem to understand what you are going through. I don't know why they think that it should be our entire responsibilty to get information to them especially when we can't be there to always inform them and keep up with our schoolwork. I hope you remind yourself that this isn't your fault!

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If you can, get the homebound teacher some info on your illness. Dynakids has some excellent info specifically for schools. She needs to get off her high horse and be a little more understanding. I'm really so sick and tired of hearing how students/kids are treated who become ill with autonomic illnesses! I'm sure if you had cancer, their would be no questions asked!

Hang in there. Remember that your highest priority right now is getting better so take good care of yourself. My daughter's doctor told her to rest when she feels the need and to listen to her body.

@Mully We don't have any experience at this point with online since this is the first time she's ended up homebound. I'll be checking that out once I decide if she can handle more. Right now, she's taking 4 classes at home so we'll see. Liz's teacher did send me an email for online classes.

God bless,

Brenda

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teachr4k:

Thanks I will check out that site. It's hard for me to take more breaks than I already do because I'm always so concerned with keeping up and my teachers put the pressure on me to stay with the rest of my class which is so hard to do when you miss so much and have big gaps in your memory. Are there certain things that help with getting the extra breaks that I need without falling behind?

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Mully2014,

1. Has your doctor written any instructions to the school? Our doctor used the list from the Dynakids website regarding possible modifications and tailored the modifications to fit my daughter. My daughter has extra time to make up her homework and does less when having a flare.

2. We have a small support group of parents who have kids with POTS in the Houston area. Some school districts have been great to work with while other districts have been absolutely horrible. We have provided copies of IEPs from other kids in our support group to provide support/ideas for parents when they have a problem with their child's school district. It may help to get copies from others from your state. Debbie Dominelli at DYNAkids can offer a lot of guidance in this area.

3. One thing I want to emphasize is to make sure all communication is made by email. Even if you or

your parent have a phone conversation with someone at school, follow up the conversation with "this email is to confirm our conversation today that etc. Etc". We have had a few parents who were forced to hire an education advocate for their child. The first thing the advocate tells everyone is to put all communication in writing via email. If all communication is in writing, you will have less chance of a misunderstanding down the road.

I am so sorry for all of you who are in school. I know how difficult and stressful your life is right now. The most important thing is to take care of yourself.

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Yes!!! Taking care of yourself is the most important thing. In my IEP I have it where the teahcers individually were going to decide if I should take the final for that class and so far a few of them have told me I don't need to take it...which is a relief because of all the head pain I experience from concentrating.

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We had to pull my daughter out of school this year and homeschool her. Her lessons are software based. All the planning and assignments are already done and it does most of the grading, attendance tracking and reporting. It is working very well. If homebound does not work out, consider homeschooling. Her anxiety is greatly improved as well as her symptoms as we are able to control her environment a lot better. We used Switched on Schoolhouse. They have other options as well which include internet based and book based. She can pace herself and get done when she is ready.

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