Dear Addy,
My daughter is about to start kindergarten. How should I go about telling the teachers and administrators at her school about her hemophilia? I want them to know how best to respond to any incidents without treating her like a Faberge egg.
Signed,
Off to School-Now What?!
Dear Off to School,
Sending a child with a bleeding disorder off to school for the first time can be both exhilarating and terrifying. You may be excited for your daughter to learn new things and establish a sense of independence, but also fearful that something might happen to her while she’s away from home. Don’t worry, though; help is available for you and the school’s staff!
Please take some time to check out HFA’s newly revamped Back to School toolkit in our Resource Library. This toolkit is full of documents to help educate the educators while taking some of the stress off the shoulders of parents like you. There are downloadable forms, video presentations, and links to great resources all over the web!
Some of the features of this toolkit include:
- a customizable PowerPoint (add your child’s specific information and use this to teach your teacher about her bleeding disorder)
- a flowchart to determine if your child needs a 504 or an Individual Education Plan (IEP)
- real life examples of 504 plans for K-12 students
- a customizable Individualized Health Plan (IHP)
- a customizable quick reference sheet for teachers, substitute teachers, bus drivers, and coaches
Please visit the Back to School Toolkit to find these tools and many others here. The National Hemophilia Federation has a good article on the subject, too. Best of luck.
Sincerely,
Addy
Have a question? Click HERE. Your name will be changed in the response.
HFA frequently receives questions from the bleeding disorders community related to advocacy issues. The questions often impact the entire community. In an effort to reach the largest audience possible with our responses to these widely applicable questions, HFA developed “Dear Addy.” Questions submitted to this column are edited in order to protect privacy and should be considered educational only, not individual guidance.
