Oh, a private school doesn’t have to do a damn thing. They only want typical students that do not require anything outside the box. Why are you paying money for her to go to this private school? If they stopped allowing her to come to school, are you getting your money back?
At this point her priorities should be to graduate and see her therapist to attend to her mental health.
We went to through something very similar with our two kids, both of whom had chronic health issues and missed a LOT of school due to medical issues. They did allow S to graduate because he was a NMF but had frequent conferences with the kids and me and administration, scolding us and trying to get us to allow them to communicate directly with the medical providers (the providers refused as they have had schools use information provided against students). Ultimately, D was asked to leave her private HS after JR year.
She had also had some embarrassing times. Teachers would question her in front of the class about her health issues. They would ask her friends where she was–whether she was REALLY sick or playing truant. It was actually a relief that once she left the HS, all of that ended and we no longer had to have frequent sessions with the administration. Some of her MDs were wonderfully supportive and helped us through the very rough times, while a few others (including her pediatrician) abandoned her and us.
We gave D 3 options: transfer to the local public HS that is in our district, go to a charter school that is mostly online, or take & pass the GED and start college. We visited the charter school and she HATED it with a passion. She opted to take the GED and got 4000 out of 4000 and started CC that fall. She visited her friends who were in their SR year of private HS regularly and transferred to her dream private U (applied after her 1st semester of CC where she had a 3.8 GPA). Nearly all of her 3 semesters of CC were accepted by the private U she transferred to. Her friends who started as freshman at that private U welcomed her to campus, as they started in the fall and she started as a transfer the following January. She did get her bachelor’s degree from the private U, after being admitted to one of their most competitive programs. We did register with the disabilities office for both her CC and the private U, in case she needed the services and to alert them that she may have medically-related prolonged absences, as she had every year for the past 8-10 years.
(We also registered S with the disabilities office at his private U–he never used their services, but it made us feel better, knowing he was registered with them and could have them help as needed; he graduated with honors! S opted NOT to attend one of the Us that accepted him and offered significant merit awards because they indicated that if he missed 2 weeks in any quarter, they would likely ask him to withdraw from their U and forgo all his merit awards; the other Us promised to work with him and us and indicated that they had other students who were able to succeed even with prolonged medical absences.)
A private school that does not have government funding IS still covered by the ADA and OCR, but not under Section 504. I posted the language in my first post on this thread. Generally it seems that issues of access predominate.
If a student takes a medical leave (including in the middle of a semester), or a student has a reduced course load as an accommodation, then a college cannot legally enforce a graduation time limit that is meant for students who do not have leaves or reduced course load. And financial aid should cover the extra semesters that a reduced course load requires.
Peers in high school do not understand health issues. Adults don’t either. It is easier having a concrete health event like surgery than a chronic condition, especially if it is invisible to others.
We did not choose schools based on their accommodation policies, frankly. We felt our kids deserved access to any school and if we ended up trailblazing a bit, so be it. We did find much more understanding at the college level, among administrators anyway, so hope that helps/
Even if the ADA applies, and even if the student is ADA eligible, the school did make accommodations. Being ADA eligible does not allow the student or parent to make the demands or set the accommodations, they are only required to make accommodations that don’t change the life activity and they do not have to adjust their standards. A student may need to sit in the front of the class or have more frequent breaks or need extra time on exams. The school does not have to accept that the student can’t attend class 2 or the 5 days a week the class meets, or that the student can’t do the labs. Adjust the labs? Yes, but not excuse them entirely. I’ve been through IEP accommodations with schools that are a joy to work with because they really do want the best for the student within their standards. I’ve fought it with other schools and those situations are never ideal and never become even ‘good’ because everyone is always trying to protect turf and so much energy is spent fighting nothing gets done.
In this case, it sounds like the minimum the school can accept is the work for the English classes to confer a diploma. OP said it’s been a month and daughter hasn’t done the work. The work has to be done in order for the school to issue a diploma. Someone has to move first.
I guess if the OP has an alternative, it’s time to make the suggestions. What would you, OP, think would be the best way to handle it? If the school said your daughter could return, could she in fact return? Would she still have doctor’s appointments and continue to miss classes.
Twoinandone, I agree with everything you wrote in this instance. The school has offered accommodations sufficient for graduation. Sometimes I am aware of lurkers or future readers and post something about policy for that reason rather than for the specific situation at hand and hope I didn’t create a tangent.
The real problem here is that being asked to take a leave seemed to have sent the daughter into a downward spiral. Perhaps those other circumstances contributed. If an agreement can be reached at a meeting, that the daughter can somehow be part of the peer group for the last month, perhaps she will be motivated to do the work.
If not, a GED and/or distance diploma can achieve graduation and she can be encourage to move on. But she appears to be a kid who could benefit from closure through a graduation ritual with her friends if that is at all possible.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t leave a private school that was making life so difficult, or at least come to an understanding about how your D’s health issues were to be addressed during senior year before paying for another year’s tuition.
I agree with other posters that the first priority now is addressing your D’s mental health issues. The rest can follow in due course. If she has to defer the start of college for a semester because she hasn’t completed her high school course work, it’s not the end of the world. But to be honest, your D’s allegations of molestation by a doctor and of teachers yelling at her and talking behind her back suggest there might be some issues of confabulation here. Coupled with her downward spiral, I’d conclude that some serious psychological intervention is required ASAP, with the issue of finishing senior year put on the back burner.
I think that helping her rejoin classmates on some level before or for graduation is important. Therapists don’t always prove as helpful as real life resolutions.
We ran into a well-respected MD who was accused by 3 teens of molestation. He continued to practice under some restrictions. It does happen. I would not think fabrication unless there was a reason to. Ditto with teachers, who often have little understanding of or patience with chronic health issues.