504 Plan Advice

[sisyphus30]

Hi - I'm completely new to the forum. My 15 year old son has Crohn's (well, one doctor says Crohn's and one says UC, so it's a toss-up) and we are meeting with his high school on Monday to continue to work on his 504 plan. We are stuck on how long he should have to make up assignments that he misses because of disease activity and/or doctor's appointments. They say ten days, I say an entire trimester, simply because of the up and down nature of IBD. Anyone have any advice or experience in this area? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[AZMOM]

You could do something to the effect of "ten days or a long period to be negotiated as needed due to disease activity. If a longer period is needed, _____ (parents name) will contact the teacher(s) directly" Thoughts?

My daughter has a 504 but is still young enough we haven't encountered this one yet.

J.

 

[my little penguin]

http://www.ccfa.org/resources/template-section-504-plan.html
Link to ccfa sample 504
We have a 504 And a good letter from the Gi dept . Stating that while he is in a flare he gets the same number of days to make it up.
That the school will provide assignments in writing.
He will not be penalized for missing etc...
I don't see why you would need the whole semester.
If he is that bad then the school provides home instruction or you cyber school either way he will need to keep up with the work by working even if he only feels good for say an hour.
It's hard at first especially until you find the right drug combo.

 

[Jmrogers4]

What about not having to do every assignment, my son's teachers like to give him the "meat" and not the potatoes when he has been gone for an extended time in other words he does the big main assignments but not all the busy work assignments so he would have to do a book report but not the daily paragraph writing prompts for example. So I think a stated number of days would be difficult because it would depend upon how long he is gone and even how he is feeling when he returns. Anytime Jack has had a flare even when he is feeling better it seems like it takes much longer for his energy to come back and he sleeps more. I think they don't understand that just because they are at school does not mean they are 100% Communication is key, I think Dusty has a great write up that she brought to school after her daughter returned in another thread.
Hope you get it all worked out and welcome to the forum

 

[Patricia56]

Agree pretty much with MLP.

Your goal is to keep life as normal as possible. It is not normal to need a whole trimester to make up work after you have missed a day or even a week.

If he is very sick and missing weeks at a time then alternate arrangements need to be made.

 

[Clash]

I agree with MLP and Patricia. While my son(16 now, 15 during diagnosis journey) was going through the process of being diagnosed the curriculum director set up an emergency 504 and it allotted for C to have until the end of the grading period to make up work from absences. In the beginning, I thought it would be just what he needed but he is a teenager and he needed structure, with all that time he procrastinated when he was feeling well(he is an honor student and I think he thought...aww no problems I'll just bang it out)and then would be overwhelmed when faced with the amount of work. Also, he was taking tests that were several chapters behind where he was in class because the teachers were not worried about these grades until the end of the period when they had to have all their grades turned in.

Once diagnosed they set up the 504 plan to be more structured as far as make up work and tests/quizzes and projects(but can be altered if absences are extensive), I think C really needed this structure and it kept him feeling connected to the work going on at that time in the classroom.

 

[sisyphus30]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, they want a defined period of time - a certain number of days. And while I agree with you that an entire semester is overkill, I can't get anyone at the school to give me any suggestions. In fact, they don't really want to deal with this at all. They wanted me to withdraw him and put him in cyber school - and he wasn't missing weeks at at time. This is also why putting something vague and open-ended won't work. At any rate, thanks again for the suggestions and the quick responses. You guys are awesome.

 

[Beatit]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, they want a defined period of time - a certain number of days. And while I agree with you that an entire semester is overkill, I can't get anyone at the school to give me any suggestions. In fact, they don't really want to deal with this at all. They wanted me to withdraw him and put him in cyber school - and he wasn't missing weeks at at time. This is also why putting something vague and open-ended won't work. At any rate, thanks again for the suggestions and the quick responses. You guys are awesome.

Sis this is what my old man told me when I was young keep in mind I was "healthy" till 18. I was the class clown. Just remember scores matter only in High School and college. JR high and before not much to worry about just pass the grade doing your best. I WISH YOU LUCK>!

 

[Patricia56]

Twice the number of days absent.

If you want an arbitrary rule then that's what I would do. I think this is what's in the CCFA template.

Speaking of which, I believe MLP linked it for you above. You might want to print it out and take it with you to the meeting for ideas.

 

[DustyKat]

Hi sisyphus30 and :welcome:

I am so sorry to hear about your boy and the issues you are having with the school. :hug:

Not being from the US I have no experience with 504's but I do not see why the school can't negotiate the rescheduling of due assignments and/or exams following each absence but as I said I know nothing of 504's.

This is the link that Jacqui is referring to...

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=18420

...it contains quite a number of posts regarding school and university and includes the letter I wrote as a guideline/notes for my meeting with the school. It also includes a template 504.

Good luck! I hope you can get some reasonable accommodations sorted with the school.

Dusty. xxx