Sharing medical info with teacher

[librarychica]

My girls have had a very germy first quarter — multiple stomach bugs and colds — and for the last 6 weeks DD has had a spike in hormonal migraines. She’s missed 3 days of school in that time. I took her to the doctor and they gave her a intervention medication similar to what I take (sorry hon you got this tendency from me) but I am not yet willing to put her on a preventative because of side affects.

Anyway! All that to say she also has a very strict science teacher, it’s a challenging class (basically 9th grade science for 7th graders) and the teacher assigns a lot of work and does not handhold at all. Which is fine, but she is also really tetchy about makeup work. She firmly and loudly believes that school and this class especially should be the top priority and gives off (in my opinion) very strong “American parents do not prioritize school” vibes. DD has gotten good grades and kept up with her work, this is her favorite subject, but there have been several times where she’s been dinged for “late” work that was not late because she had an excused absence. So far neither she nor I have pushed that because it was just a couple of assignments.

The doctor offered me a note saying that DD has a ongoing condition. Should I reach out to the science teacher and basically say “hey DD1 is having this medical issue that is causing her to miss more school than normal. Working on it, please show her some grace as she works to keep up with your class?”

[mommyatty]

I would share it with the school administrators if you haven’t already and specifically tell them to handle the teacher. That you won’t put up with your child being punished for a disability. (And migraines are literally a covered disability under the ADA.)

[twinmomma]

I would absolutely reach out to the teacher if this is a documented issue and you know that this could (and likely will) be an ongoing issue.

If the migraines are something that you think will be a long standing issue, you could even request a 504 plan in place since it's a medical diagnosis. That would help "protect" your daughter from teachers making up their own rules and accommodations. We ended up doing that for my step son because the school was flagging him as a truancy issue when he missed a lot of school for actual medical reasons due to his asthma. Now it's in writing that he can't be penalized for late/missing work and teachers have to accommodate it.

[sdlaura]

Yes, I would share it. DD has a teacher like this too and I agree with everything you said - that I think prioritizing school and not allowing too much slack in general is good - but she should be made aware of the situation.

[186momx]

I would give the information to the admin and health room people and have an action plan in place in case of her getting a migraine at school. I would then ask the admin to do a group shout out to all of her teachers to let them know her medical issues. I would also look into getting a 504 because some teachers can just be extra about work especially as the kids get older. I was really sick my senior year and my English teacher just didn't get that I wasn't just skipping school and kept dinging me for late work or bad attendance/participation. I finally just switched classes because no matter what I did he wouldn't listen.

I will say I had to tell DD's culinary teacher about her allergy stuff and that she couldn't eat during culinary class because the district nurse hadn't updated DD's file yet but that was the first two weeks of school.

[librarychica]

The school nurse knows since she holds DD’s medication.

I’m sure the admin would support if needed but I will reach out to the teacher first. If it’s an ongoing issue (either bc of the teacher or bc it takes longer to get the migraines under control than we hope) I’ll look at sitting down with admin + a 504. A 504 hadn’t even occurred to me .

[mommyatty]

librarychica- aren’t they in private school? If so, 504 doesn’t apply but the ADA does. So they have to make reasonable accommodations but don’t have to do everything a public school would.

[librarychica]

Nov 14, 2024 15:47:04 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

librarychica- aren’t they in private school? If so, 504 doesn’t apply but the ADA does. So they have to make reasonable accommodations but don’t have to do everything a public school would.

No, they’re in our zoned public. It’s a K8 so maybe that’s why you thought private? They’re becoming more common here.

[dglvrk2]

I would DEFINATELY go to the admin FIRST. They need to be aware of this and are ultimately responsible for ensuring your daughter's accommodations are met.

[sandandsea]

I would share and I would get a formal accommodation documented now as it only gets harder as they get older. Also I wouldn’t worry too much as middle school grades really don’t matter or count for anything. Use it as practice for how to deal with the school and the disability when it does matter more.

[mustardseed2007]

I'd share with both the administration and also this teacher in particular.

[mommyatty]

Nov 14, 2024 18:28:10 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

I would share and I would get a formal accommodation documented now as it only gets harder as they get older. Also I wouldn’t worry too much as middle school grades really don’t matter or count for anything. Use it as practice for how to deal with the school and the disability when it does matter more.

This. It seems like elementary schools are much, much more used to putting these plans in place and are like a machine. But the older your kid gets, the less experienced they are in creating the “original plan” and the more resistant they get. But they administer and update plans all the time.

[livinitup]

I don’t mind the science teacher’s no non-sense inflexibility but it’s a really bad fit with a student managing migraines. Migraines are exactly the kind of diagnosis that a teacher bent on being a hard ass would dismiss while probably being flexible for something more obvious like a broken collar bone.

I am almost universally agreed with “going to the teacher first” but this may be the exception. Waiting may mean waiting for this teacher to fail which would mean bringing it to the administrator would be an escalation and poor reflection ion the teacher and how the teacher managed medical news. By flipping who you tell first (besides the nurse), you’re keeping it more “informative” and leading with “how do we support the student and teacher” - rather than as a reaction to a record where the teacher mishandled it.