Today we met with the Assistant Principal, the District Nurse, the School Nurse, and Liam’s teacher. I thought this was our 504 where we discuss our accommodations, but come to find out this was really just a meet-and-greet and get a general sense for how Liam’s D-Management goes at home and discussed many things that are actually in our accommodations list, without actually looking at our list (I guess they’re just common things for schools that manage 504’s regularly.)
Anyway, so I must say, for us at least…I feel AMAZING after speaking with our school reps that Liam is going to have a really fantastic time and will be managed properly by the school nurse and staff who are tasked to look after him during the day.
Their plan is to “evaluate him” over the next couple week themselves, then, based on that evaluation PLUS our accommodations list, we’ll have a “formal 504” where we discuss his specific needs. They indicated they’ve found this works best because what works at home doesn’t always convey well to school (which we definitely already know - we plan on being a lot more more conservative during the school day with insulin than we would be at home where my eyes and hands are always mere seconds from Liam.)
Three days ago, we met with the School Nurse and spent 2 hours with her before this meeting today. She was very ready for this responsibility and even joked that “I won’t be bored this year” - speaking about the new technology which will make her think, unlike all the other routine things that she no longer has to even give a second thought about anymore. We showed her his system, went over the Nurses Instructions with her, let her do some hands on, and she felt really good about it. I set up Nightscout on her Office laptop with alarms enabled and she REALLY LOVED THIS. She said the fact that the alarms will sound while she may be on another tab or away from the PC is going to be great for her.
They indicated that…which surprised me…they do NOT want to interfere with our amazing A1C if at all possible and that they would prefer to try, like we have, to figure out how to keep that A1C as low as possilbe. This made me feel really great because him “riding high” all day was a big concern. They understand the hard work that it takes to get an a1c of 6.1 and they were fully onboard with continuing with that tight management as much as possible.
Besides that, we just went over things such as pre-PE, what the teacher should watch and listen for, how / when to call the Nurse, etc.,
I will be going to school at lunch time on Monday to shadow the Nurse (per her request - which she offered to me to make me feel better with my 1st day jitters.) She seems very competent and capable, but being able to be there at lunch on day 1 just to show her how I do it I think will give her some practical experience.
All in all, my jitters are mostly gone and I just look forward to Liam having a fun and productive school year like all the other non-D kids. He’s very excited about it and we’ll begin our next chapter’s journey this coming Monday.
I am very happy that the school is fully supportive of the Omniloop system and seems very interested in making the transition as smooth as possible for everyone concerned.
