school and colds

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I am tired of getting the " oh you are a bad mom " look from the health

assistant at school! If I let say home every time " she looks

droopy " or " she can't focus " or " she sounds stuffy " or " she coughed " or

" her nose is dripping " then the kid would attend school less than 50% of

the time. I am totally against sending sick kids to school, and hate it

when I'm in the classroom and see an kid who obviously has a fever, or

says " I told my mom my tummy hurt, but she made me come to school " then

barfs......... really sick kids are pretty obvious. does not

always like to be at school, and we all know that the beginning of a new

year brings the usual testing of new teachers, challenges in transitions

as schedules change, etc. Yet, if she is hard to focus, they say to me

" she must not be feeling well today, she was taking her shoes off in

math and couldn't focus " . If she has a cold, and her nose is running

all over the place, I keep her home. But, once her nose is back to an

occasional wipe, she goes back........ the remnants of a cold hang on

for weeks with her..... it's her and her depressed immune system. THEY

KNOW THIS.......... It hasn't changed since kinder. When she has

congestion, it hangs up somewhere in the back of her throat and it

sounds like she has pneumonia or TB or something........ IT'S BEEN LIKE

THIS FOREVER! When she was little, I took her in the the ped. to have

them listen to her chest almost every cold because she sounded so bad

(and had RSV at 9 weeks), but it was NEVER in her chest. Pediatrician

always says, you can try a little Benadryl at night to dry it up

(obviously not during the day, she will fall asleep), but it's just what

she does..... no worries medically, just sounds bad.

So, I am working at school today (sub. yard duty..... great way to keep

tabs on things) and they radio me to come to the office........

" sounds terrible, was coughing in resource, what should they

do? " No fever, and when she started telling me " mom, let's go home and

then go to ice cream..... you know rainbow sherbert is my favorite, blah

blah blah.... jumped up off the cot to continue her animated tirade

about rainbow shebert, but " we have to go to Baskin Robbins because they

don't have rainbow sherbert at Cold Stone.......... " I finally looked

at the health assistant and said " seems like she's OK to be at school,

don't you think? " We discussed that perhaps she needed some fluids, and

I authorized juice at lunch rather than milk, but I told the aide....

why don't you just take her to lunch 15 minutes early? Aide replys, " I

can't do that....... I have to work with a group of kids during

resource. " ( was supposed to be a resource at this time she

was in the office) This opens another whole can of worms, since I say

" well, that's not in 's IEP..... you are her 1:1, and if you

are her 1:1, how can you be working with other kids during resource

time? " No answer to that, and I decided not to go there (yet), so told

her to " go back to wherever, she's not coming home. "

I watched at lunch (whole new problem with lunch supervision,

but that will be separate :-)....... She ate her lunch, skipped out to

the playground, played on the playground equipment, came in when the

whistle blew. Got a call at 2 (20 minutes before school gets out) from

the health assistant that she's back in the office and I need to come.

Go, the aide says " she just shut down on me..... what am I supposed to

do? " (attributing her refusal to do work to not feeling well). My

frustration was very obvious, and I asked " does she have a fever " (No)

" Does she have green snot (or any snot) coming from her nose? " (No), " Is

she complaining of a tummy or headache? " (No). Her only complain was

that she coughed during class and it sounded " gaggy " , and she " shut

down " , so she brought her to the office. She had also been sent home

once this year for falling alseep during math.

So, I am thinking of going to the ped tomorrow to get some sort of note

that says " sounds horrible but she's fine to be at school " or

something like that...... do they have to honor a pediatrician note over

two untrained school staffers? I also think that the aide doesn't

believe that realizes if she says " I don't feel well " that she

knows she will get out of whatever task it is....... do they not know

our kids DO know how to avoid tasks they don't want to do? Do they not

remember (even though I am reminding them frequently) that

tests EVERYONE the beginning of the year........

Between this, the whole resource room situation (the mom in there, the

new teacher that doesn't seem up to speed, and now finding the aide is

doing other stuff), the problems I see at lunch (and the comments I've

been getting about how mean the aide is to from other

parents)..... I HAVE A HEADACHE!

I need to call a meeting to get things straightened out, and I think

this time I'll offically ask for an FBA......... the aide needs it more

than , LOL. But really, last year's RSP was good, and

dominated over the aide........... that's not going to happen this year.

Thoughts, suggestions?

, mom to (10), (8 DS), and Sammy (7)