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School doesn't have resources to meet my child's needs

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Hi @shazniko Most if not all teachers will help if they know the background, what to look for etc. The school does have a duty of care for your child. You just need to get past the Senco maybe and get to the head or deputy to explain. Can the DSN get into school to help?? There should be a pastoral team / head of year that may help. Best of luck.
 
Hi Bexlee. The Diabetic Nurse is already involved in the meetings we have with the school. She has expressed her concern too that my daughter won't have someone allocated to her continually as she clearly needs it for her own safety. I have asked for senior management to be involved. Waiting to hear back.
 
Just a suggestion, but would her school friends help out? I ask because there was a youngster in my previous location who had difficulties in recognising hypos and treating them. Her school buddies were always there for her and as soon as they saw she was hypo they would say test your bloods and then made sure she had the glucose needed. This was fine at Jr school but Snr was a different matter so the school involved everyone by teaching her class mates about diabetes and what happens when low or high.
That youngster now has her own plumbing business and doing very well for herself 🙂
 
The problem we have is that she looks no different when she has hypos/hypers. She could be sitting at 2 and she still carries on as normal. She is going to have at least 2 friends in her classes with her. It's the prompting of when she needs to take her bloods and how to manage the results that she needs help with. I didn't want to put any responsibility on her friends as its a big responsibility. My eldest daughter is going into S6 and she also has Type 1 Diabetes. She is going to be my daughters buddy but she won't be around all the time as she will obviously have to attend her own classes. I'm having another meeting with the school later this week so we'll see what other suggestions they have as the current plan worries me.
 
shazniko said:
The problem we have is that she looks no different when she has hypos/hypers. She could be sitting at 2 and she still carries on as normal. She is going to have at least 2 friends in her classes with her. It's the prompting of when she needs to take her bloods and how to manage the results that she needs help with. I didn't want to put any responsibility on her friends as its a big responsibility. My eldest daughter is going into S6 and she also has Type 1 Diabetes. She is going to be my daughters buddy but she won't be around all the time as she will obviously have to attend her own classes. I'm having another meeting with the school later this week so we'll see what other suggestions they have as the current plan worries me.
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Obviously moving on to secondary school with bring a lot of changes in routine but she will have to become more independent about doing things. I wonder if you could encourage her to take responsibility for some task which she needs to do, to get her into the habit of responding to an alert to check on something. This is all relatively new you and her but you do have some experience if your other daughter is also Type 1 and I assume she has made the step to managing her condition with some independence.
 
My other daughter is completely independent in managing her Diabetes. However, my youngest has the added complication of having Autism so she is easily distracted, has poor short term memory, poor concentration etc. So she can't be relied upon to be independent. When she hypos, she knows she has to drink apple juice. However, many times she gets distracted or just forgets in a short space of time of what she is meant to do. We have tried alarms but you still need to prompt her to take blood, give a correction etc. It's just too dangerous to trust her as she is so unpredictable. I would love nothing more than for her to be independent but she just isn't there yet.
 
She sounds like a good candidate for getting a dexcom funded by the NHS. With dexcom you need a smart phone (their website has the details of which are supported - we got a second hand iphone) and that bluetooths to the CGM. This can be set to alert for hypos, going down fast so will be hypo soon, etc. Her school care plan should mean that everyone who teaches her knows what to do if she’s hypo so can prompt her or send to the medical room. As a parent you can download a follow app so you can see what her levels are, receive alerts etc which is both a blessing and a curse when you’re not physically present with her. If she also has a tslim that can talk to the dexcom and cut out basal meaning she’s less likely to be hypo to begin with. Talk to your team about options and your concerns. Tech can obviously only go so far but it may help reduce the need for someone to be with her all the time and aid a plan with the school nurse or equivalent.
 
The school have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ , if they don’t have the staff then they have to employ or train existing staff. It is not acceptable to say they cannot meet needs for this. Speak to your SEND department for advice. Your LA will also have an IASS Information advice and support service for SEND. They will also have a Local Offer website which will give you further information.
 
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