Your Child's Back-To-School Dream Team

 

With every new school year, many families live with the ever-present "new school year" jitters. Parents and students may be adjusting to a new school, new teachers, and maybe even making new friends. However, parents of students living with epilepsy have the added stress of not knowing if their child's school staff are ready to properly handle a medical emergency if their child has a seizure at school, on the soccer field, or on the school bus.

Create a "Dream Team"

Every parent should work with their child's school to ensure school personnel know exactly what to do if their child has a seizure. The family and school should work as a team to properly care for these students. Create a "dream team" if you will. Your child's dream team should include every adult your child encounters on the way to school, while at school, during school-sponsored activities like sports, and on the way home. Your dream team might include

 

• Bus drivers
• Teachers and class aides
• School nurses
• Administrators
• After-school program staff
• Guidance staff
• Coaches
• Cafeteria workers
• Others who routinely interact with children at school

How the Epilepsy Foundation Can Help

If school personnel don't know how to care for a student with epilepsy, the Foundation has two, free educational programs that can help:

1. Managing Students with Seizures: The Importance of School Nurses – a 2-hour training for school nurses
2. Seizure Training for School Personnel – an hour-long training for all non-nursing staff in the school

Both trainings are accredited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for CNEs and CEUs respectively.

These trainings address

• Basic seizure first aid
• Various types of seizures a student can experience
• Types of rescue therapies recommended by the student's physician
• How epilepsy and the prescribed medications can affect the student in the classroom

Most importantly, training can provide school staff with the education and confidence they need to care for any student that has a seizure.

Making a Difference for Students Together

When families and schools work together as a team, the student will be the primary benefactor while parents can begin to feel at ease. School nurses and school personnel can take these trainings online or in-person by contacting their local Epilepsy Foundation office.

Ensuring every student with epilepsy has a dream team will result in students having a safe school environment and a productive school year.