Jean

Posted on 11/07/09

Thanks! Yes, wasub, I'm Jean from the sub board. We were near the
end of last year when my daughter passed out at her desk and was
subsequently diagnosed with epilepsy (quickly followed by migraine
headaches). Last year's teachers, admin., and staff were so
helpful that it was enough for my daughter to be under only "the
umbrella of a 504." My husband and I were told that we'd solidify
the 504 this year. She wasn't given an IEP, because she wasn't
failing all of her classes.

My daughter missed most of the whole first quarter of classes this
fall. At first it was from the medicine mix-up. Because of that,
the migraines hit full-force again (several a day). Then we
discovered that - at the same time - she had sinusitis. Going back
on her regular meds. for the epilepsy and migraines and taking the
antibiotic for the sinusitis seem to have rid her (for the time
being) of seizures and migraines. The med she is on may not
completely alleviate her migraines, but it's known to be 50-75%
effective. The med seems to be completely controlling her seizures
at this point - to the point that she has been given permission to
start driving again now. The problem is that depression followed
on the heels of the meds. mix-up and the sinusitis. Because she
was missing so much school again, the school counselor recommended
that my daughter switch her two required (to graduate) classes to
online and come to school only for her audited electives and office
assistant work. The depression, though, seems to be partly due to
the greater difficulty of the online work and my daughter's desire
to take all of her classes on campus. There is still, of course,
the genetic predisposition to mental illness in the family, but now
she has just started taking meds and is in therapy.

When my daughter began falling so far behind in her online classes,
I asked the school counselor if maybe we should solidify the 504.
She said she didn't think it'd be a good idea because she wouldn't
know what concessions to request. Can we ask for the school
attendance record to be thrown out? Can I now get an IEP for her
since she has fallen so far behind in her classes? This past
quarter, she got two F's in her online courses. Since we waited so
long to cancel the third course (that she required for an advanced
degree), she got an F in that, too (or an I, can't recall which).

We have a meeting with the school counselor and admin. this coming
week and my daughter's therapists said we should invite the on-
campus teachers to join the meeting. Should we? Should we make
sure that someone from special ed. is at the meeting to act as our
advocate? I'm afraid they'll tell my daughter to not come back to
campus at all, and I know that she'll feel dashed if they do that.
She wants to go back to campus, so I'm hoping that - even though
she hasn't had many days that she has made it there because of the
health problems and then the depression - they'll let her try it
again.
-Jean

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