- Allow for time during the school day for airway clearance therapy and taking medicines as needed.
- Adjust school rules to allow the child to take his or her own pancreatic enzymes, vitamins, and certain other medicines (as needed).
- The school plan should ensure that all who may come in contact with the child (including bus drivers, cafeteria staff and monitors, substitute teachers, faculty and administrators, etc.) understands and supports his/her accommodations.
- For example, the child may need to carry a note in his/her backpack with permission to carry and take medication such as digestive enzymes so that uninformed adults do not take the pills away from the child such that he or she cannot eat.
- Ensure unrestricted access to food and drink, including salty snacks (see section 1, Dietary/Medical Needs).
- Provide unrestricted access to a bathroom, perhaps a private bathroom in the nurse’s office.
- Adjust or waive attendance guidelines to provide for the child’s individual accommodation needs (e.g., illness, multiple medical appointments).
- Allow for a later start or early ending for a child’s school day
- This can help with time-consuming therapies and accommodate fatigue
- Make arrangements for the child to remain indoors if the temperature outside is too hot or cold.
- Monitor daily progress and activities to help ensure that he or she does not fall behind academically.
- Have a plan to get homework or tutoring to the child when he or she is ill or in the hospital.
- Children with CF may be absent periodically to receive IV antibiotics for lung infections, among other reasons.
- Allow the child to have a second set of text books at home.
- Consider Web cameras or DVD recordings of classes the child may miss.
- Have a communication plan within the school and between the school and the child’s parents.
- Provide counseling to the child
- This can begin in early elementary school
- It can help him or her cope with the challenges of a chronic health condition.
- Prepare a medical emergency plan for the school day, to include:
- Extracurricular activities
- School transportation
- Fire or other drills
- Actual emergencies as needed (see section 6. Emergency Planning).