My son attended 5 weeks of school in Sophomore year semester 1 and then had an injury incident due to which he has missed school since and likely for the rest of semester. He was enrolled in 4 higher level subjects, English 10 and PE. What will his semester grade report look like and how do colleges perceive such unfortunate events that impact a student’s high school and college plans?
I would talk to the school as to how to proceed.
Yes we are to meet with school this week and I’m hoping we will have some clarity. Options like Home and Hospital instructions came up earlier but since my son is suffering post concussion syndrome, he has great difficulty studying anything. I wish he could take the whole year off with something like medical leave of absence to heal and recover fully and then go back to Sophomore year again next Fall. Our hope is that he will recover by then and he can actually study then. But it appears that public schools do not allow “medical leave of absence” and expect student to finish high school within their original K-12 timeline to graduation, which seems very unfair to those who struggle with health issues and temporary disabilities.
Maybe it makes sense to speak to a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing.
Spoke to the school. They would mark his subject as “Incomplete” on grade report, which he would need to make up at a later time. This also means he cannot do semester 2 because subjects are a continuation of semester 1. Under the circumstances, Independent Study seems to be the only option. Has anyone encountered such an experience? How do colleges perceive students coming applying from private schools providing Independent learner programs?
Is there any possible way to transfer to another school and start as a sophomore there?
I understand that this is a very drastic measure, but it is an option that may be worth at least looking into.
Once the circumstance is explained they should understand the circumstance and i can’t imagine he will be penalized. When it comes time to fill out college applications be sure to ask the guidance counselor to note this in his/her recommendation to colleges. For now the most important thing by far is that your son has the time needed to recover fully.
Yes, we would also like this option. I explored medical leave of absence as an option and found that the California Department of Education does not allow leave of absences on medical grounds! They expect the student to fit back into their K-12 path to graduate on time, using Home and Hospital instruction and then perhaps the district’s inadequate independent study program, which only provide very basic courses, most of which my son is already past. Private independent study programs offer higher level courses and the flexibility to study at his pace. Charter schools allow graduating in 5 years rather than 4 but I don’t think this is perceived well by colleges. My son’s neurologist has already put him out of school for the whole of current semester. So I’ve been asking our school district to tell us if he could avail leave of absence for reasons other than medical, which include “supervised travel, study, training, or work not available to the pupil under another education option”. The school district is mute. I cannot get any answers from them. Lawyers are $$$$ and they won’t sue Government entities as they have immunities. Plus the school covered up all facts that prove negligence on their part for having injured my son! We are devastated!
Would appreciate references to college counselors who may have experience in dealing with such a situation. We need advice on how best to get him back on his feet.
Hospitals and partial hospitalization programs often have an education consultant who can help you mediate with the school district. Some school districts also have independent study high schools–these are much more flexible. You could look into home schooling options–I think it’s fairly common for kids to be home schooled to a certain point and then enter school at an appropriate grade level–don’t know how that’s handled legally but there are certainly standard procedures. Also, your son probably doesn’t need 8 full semesters of full-time credits (i.e. 48 semester credits) to graduate from high school–probably more like 44. If he took advanced math and foreign language in middle school, these probably count towards high school credit in your district, further reducing the actual number of credits he needs to take in 9-12 grades to graduate. Another consideration is that for UC admission, it’s the grades from sophomore and junior year that count towards GPA.
Putting it all together, in your situation, I would consider trying to home school your son for the current semester, with the plan to put him back into the regular school for second semester sophomore year, but perhaps with a reduced schedule (e.g. maybe just math, history, English). Then he can take a normal college-prep schedule for junior year. With a full senior year schedule, he can probably complete most of a full college prep high school program (and all of the A-G UC/CSU requirements). He will be applying for UC/CSU on the basis of the strength of his junior year work, primarily. There is a section (actually, three sections) on the UC application where he has the option to explain special circumstances related to his academic preparation. He will no doubt have a great essay for the “overcoming educational obstacles” personal insight question.
If he is not ready for school second semester of sophomore year, then look further into how he can sit out the year and come back next year as a sophomore. There must be a way. The main thing is to continue to move forward with his recovery. He might “lose a year” but in the long run that doesn’t matter–it is more important for him to be ready to learn and achieve in school when he gets back, rather than to rush the recovery and have him struggle.
I would imagine a private school could and would allow him to repeat the year. Then he could be moved back to public after a year.
Actually they go by the student’s age. The K-12 requirement to graduation is followed in private schools too.
It’s a little unfortunate you’re not getting more support from the high school, but I think colleges will be ok if you explain in either an essay or the open section where you can write about things like this. As long as you don’t blame the school and your son accepts responsibility, it can be a positive, especially if your son recovers and is able to do well academically.
What the school told you seems to be the case according to the California Compulsory Full-Time Education Law (see below for link)
https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/edc/48200-48208.html
The California Dept. of Education is required to provide home “individual instruction” to students with temporary disabilities. In order to comply with the Compulsory full time ed requirement - in this situation, one hour of instruction counts as one day of attendance. Then the school is required to allow the student to complete all assignments within a reasonable period of time.
It doesn’t make sense, as how could he reasonably be able to be provided with an adequate education under those policies - one hour/day = one day of attendance?? How could he learn everything in one hour that he would have been taught in a full school day? Seems like this policy is just a way to say a kid is receiving a “full time” education without the benefit of learning anything.
I would definitely contact someone in the school district office to clarify an educational plan for your son. For example, considering his injury and the doctors recommendation, what is the “reasonable amount of time” that he will be allowed to “complete all assignments and tests missed during his absence?” How will he learn all the material in his classes with just one hour of instruction/day? The law says that his teachers will determine the tests and assignments that he’ll be required to make up - so how will that work and on what schedule?
I’d also look into homeschooling (looked at as private schooling under CA laws), which would exempt your son from the one hour/day “individual instruction” requirement of the public school system and would keep him from falling behind. The link below has details about home school policies.
"Homeschooling families have four legal options to homeschool:
Establishing your own home-based private school,
Enrolling in a private school that offers independent study (PSP)
Using a public school independent study program (ISP) or charter school that caters to homeschoolers, or
If you have a credential, using the tutorial option."
http://www.californiahomeschool.net/how-to-homeschool/legal-options/
If he was cleared by your doctor next semester, he could probably make up his credits by homeschooling in the spring and summer and be ready to return to regular school next year and still be on track.
Jeesh, what a ridiculous situation. I hope you get some better information and assistance in developing a plan for your son from the school district.
In regard to college plans, colleges should be very understanding of the situation, as long as he meets the educational requirements of your state. I wouldn’t worry about that.
How do they expect home instruction when the student is not capable of this? Are they saying if he were in a coma, he; be expected to keep up? I think not.
Oh thank you so much for taking the time to think about my son’s situation. I cannot tell you how supported I feel by reading your questions and comments. I asked the exact same questions to the district student services, superintended, Special Ed director, School Principals, School Counsellors…all of them are mute! When meeting in person, which was once back in early October, Student services director said, “those are all great questions” and wrapped up the meeting without any answers!
I asked, one hour/day = one day of attendance?? How can the ever be sufficient? Plus the Home and Hospital Instruction is implemented differently in each school district (CA dept of education advised me of it). So in our district, a para-educator would come home for 1 hour/day, 5 times/week or make it easy for themselves and come over twice a week for 2.5 hours each to count towards the 5 hour/week rule. This person would be a volunteer, or retired community member or teacher if we get lucky, but will not teach anything. Their job is to deliver the school work assigned by the class teacher, gather the assignments finished by the student and pass them to the teacher, and administer tests. So I asked who will tutor the student then, and I got no answer! I said, if he were able to self study and keep up with school work independently and be tested, then he would be back in school! Exactly as said above, how is it possible for someone with a brain injury to take off and run along independently with this bogus service called Home and Hospital instruction, without any teaching service from school? Got no answer from anyone in the school. Then I came across somewhere that Home & Hospital Instruction is meant to “minimize loss of education” when the student is out of school due to health reasons, which means it is a given that a student if struck by misfortune to fall ill enough to not be able to attend school, then they are sure to lose their futures and high school goals, whether or not their disability be temporary! You are right, this is simply a check mark item, not really meant to help a student. However, there are some school districts whose HHI is a robust program and can actually help. Some have online learning system available to students but what if the student is medically not able to look at computers or do school work online? Then they seem to provide for private tutors, but this comes after a legal battle and we have to find a lawyer who would be willing to take up a case against public schools. Also, HHI does not support student with higher level subjects…so no APs or Honors, no World Languages beyond level 2, no lab sciences since the student is not allowed to go to school! Basically, it is pretty useless, even if a child were capable of benefiting from such instruction…well I’m not sure why would they call it as “instruction” when they don’t really provide any instruction!!!
We are considering Independent study at Charter school, but even there they get to meet an advisory teacher one in 2 weeks and then have to do all of the study at home, using books or if the student is able to tolerate devices, then online tutoring. The independent study program in our district is useless…provide very minimal courses, and no higher level ones.
There is really no easy way out of this situation. There are gaps in services in the school district, which they won’t acknowledge. I’ve tried to ask for leave of absence (which CA dept of edu does not allow for Medical reasons!!!), yet I just hoped this maybe a way to get him time to recover from the injury and then get back to school. I hope it works…so far the school district is mute on it as well!
Can you homeschool? I’d investigate your state’s homeschool regs to see if that’s a possibility.
I don’t think it’s easy to homeschool a high schooler, especially for someone who has not done it before.
On the other hand my son is still having headaches with several activities as he tries to study. As long as there are symptoms, I think his healing is still ongoing and pushing him back to school or school work would mean kindling the brain injury again and again.
This being an invisible injury, his suffering is trivialized greatly by all parties involved. The school is unsupportive, and the doctors are irresponsible…they do not want to help him ease back into school and life. No two concussions are the same and yet the doctors use a standard protocol to bucket him into and wash their hands off.
The whole system of public education is dangerous to entrust our kids to, they can lose their life in school and yet parents have no rights, the public schools have government immunities to save themselves form any law suit. No lawyer will even take up the case! The lack of ethics in the medical system is whole another pandora’s box. If anyone is reading my post this far, then please take away this one thing…please request for your medical records immediately following your medical appointment and check every word recorded there. You’d be appalled at what you find! Once you catch the errors, it is another battle to get it corrected, which they have the authority to refuse to change and will only add an addeddum at the end of the medical record., which none of the doctors credit you with. Your medical records will hurt you forever! It is battle after battle after battle with school staff and administrators, to doctors and hospitals…none of them have ethics! And remember, you have to keep your job, afford the medical care, make time to take your child to the many appointments and take care of your child and keep your sanity and health! NIGHTMARE!
I have decided to keep him out of school as long as possible at any cost…I don’t care about college anymore! As long as we have politics at play, humanity as a whole will never achieve anything, be it in Ivy league colleges or no colleges!
You said previously it would be nice if he could just take the whole year off and come back next year, and that also the school would mark his courses as incomplete so he couldn’t start semester 2, but does it really matter if he can’t start semester 2 if you want him to just start over again next year?
I mean, can’t he just basically begin his sophomore year again, just next year?
And honestly, depending on how your son responds from this situation, I would think this would set him apart from other applicants, especially at this young age and make him look better to colleges… or so you would think…