School Issues

“The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society have an excellent “Back to School ” program they provide for free. It is incredibly helpful no matter what your diagnosis is.”

“There is a woman at our hospital that arranged a meeting with my son’s school, to explain to his teachers/principal/classmates about what he was going through and showed them a video. He still has kids ask if his cancer is gone (he was diagnosed 2 years ago with Leukemia). ““If your child needs to out of school for 2 weeks of longer,  get your school to send a home bound tutor to help him keep up with the work. The public schools are required to give this service free of charge.”

“He tells them he still has it, but it makes him feel uncomfortable. The school arranged a dinner/talent show to benefit him – which was absolutely wonderful. But – there were pictures of him on the walls and everyone said “hello” to Brandon (on video tape) to send to the hospital. He still feels embarrassed about this. The whole school knows he has Leukemia. He was in 2nd grade at the time and is now in 4th. I think he’s pretty much treated like a normal kid, though. He never says anything about kids teasing him – if they did, I’d go through the roof! I think that most other kids realize that it’s not a laughing matter. The school has been great – lots of support. We’ve thought about moving, but no way would we change schools in the middle of treatment. No extra stress! My son was home schooled by a teacher at his school for the rest of the year after he was diagnosed, which was only 2 1/2 months.”

“My son was diagnosed with ALL on December 1^st during the fourth grade.  He did not return to school until the fifth grade.  In our school district the children go to a new school in fifth grade so re-entry to school meant a new school.  I tried to organize my concerns and requests and made an effort to make those requests and concerns clear to both the principal and his teacher.  I drafted a lengthy letter explaining his illness, treatment, strengths, weaknesses as well as the things I wanted the school to do.  I tried to take on as much responsibility for those requests as possible.  I found that by making my concerns clear and trying to assist the school in doing the things I wanted, I was met with great cooperation and my son’s re-entry went smoothly.”

“When my son returned to school after missing almost a full year, all of his classmates just stared at him.  At first no one came to say hello, quite the contrary, it seemed that everyone was keeping their distance.  Finally, one friend came over and said “Welcome Back!”  That’s all it took.  The ice was broken and everyone acted much more normally.  After witnesses a re-entry that was almost a disaster I would recommend every parent, in that situation, find someone in the class to say those words, to express joy at seeing the child again.  If you don’t know the right child to do it, call the teacher and ask him/her to recommend someone.  It will make a big difference for everyone.”

“We were worried about the impact of all the sets of germs our child would be exposed to upon returning to school.  Consequently, we asked the teacher to have the children wash their hands several times during the day.  It turned out that this took too long, was too disruptive and would sometimes be forgotten so we purchased instant hand sanitizer  (soap that doesn’t require water) for each of the tables in the classroom.  It cost us about $15 dollars a month but was well worth it.”

“We had some difficulty with getting clear information regarding homework assignments.  If your child is out of school for several days in a week or several weeks you need a contact person that you can count on to give accurate information about what assignments are due and how to do them.  My son had wonderful teachers but none of them gave him any leeway when it came to grades.”