Explaining illness on college applications

compmom
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 20:13:21 +0000

We had a sheet that had entries like work in class (including what was done and any papers), homework assigned (including any papers needed), quizzed or tests given in class, missing grades in gradebook (this helped teachers keep track and kept my daughter up) and some others I don’t remember. She even took exams at home.

The teachers were told to do this every day whether my daughter was there or not. She had a chronic illness punctuated by surgery or crisis. Every day the school nurse would collect it and then either I or her sister would pick it up at the nurse’s office. This way, the daughter with health issues could go in and out of school, go up for an hour, come home, go back up for a class, and so on.

One other thing: she got permission to do extracurriculars despite the policy of requiring full day attendance that day. The principal agreed this was necessary for her personal development. It worked great and she is now in a PhD program for one of her extracurricular arts.

This may not apply to anyone reading this. But the thing is, I never ever would have asked for this. The lawyer, who cost $150, acted like it was obvious and simple and it actually was. My kid had suffered endless frustration trying to get the school to do what was needed, and our expectations were much lower honestly. It was amazing how effective the teachers became almost instantly. The principal felt it should be daily so it was routine, and also the teachers weren’t noticing if she was absent or not so it could not be done on that basis.

Sorry for the tangent. But noone’s transcript should suffer because of illness. That is the whole point of the Americans with Disabilities Act. By all means explain or better have the GC explain, but for others in this position, there might be ways to make things easier. Don’t mean to make the OP feel bad because this probably won’t make any difference at all.