United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Can anyone direct me to where I might find an example of a letter a parent can use to send to school with a bpi child? I found some information on the ubpn site but it was more for the purpose of gathering awareness support rather than educating the teachers about an individual child's limitations. Feel free to email me directly. Thanks!

Daniels Mom

I think you need to give them a complete packet along with a note written by you stating any special needs.
The two pages below should be given to school Nurse, Principal and of course all of his Teachers.


http://ubpn.org/awareness/A2002schoolinfo.html
http://ubpn.org/awareness/A2002quickfacts.html

Kath

My daughter will be starting Kindergarten next fall. I will be sending a note along with her for her gym teacher. Just to make him aware of her injury. Her injury isn't always apparent at first, so I want him aware of it so he doesn't think she is just not trying her best.

My son will not be starting school until year after next. However I have always assumed I would do a face to face with his teachers explaining his injury. I hadn't really thought about written notes and such. Of course we live in a tiny town, and his big sis is already in school. So we know many of the teachers and school officals on some level already. Just wondering if there is a particular reason to opt for written explainations rather than having a face to face talk?

I don't think that she would just send a letter...I have a son with asthma and when he started school all I did was just do a face to face talk with the teachers, if I had given the letter at the beginning, we would have had a better time with the school administration as well as any subs he had. Sometimes a sub would try to make my son perform physically to a degree higher than he should have - a degree to which all the other children were performing at. They wouldn't take his word for what it was worth and every time it happened they said it woulden't happen again. After the third time, I was asked by admin. why it wasn't in his file - being in his file is a legal back-up for anything that goes wrong on their part. Ever since it has been in his school file we haven't had this problem since and he is in grade nine now. Just having it in his file makes "them" liable if there is a problem and they tend to not want to get sued I guess. Better to cover all the bases I say!

Yes, I would talk to her teacher when I bring daughter in the first day, but I do want a letter on file also. I think gym will be where she struggles the most anyways.

Face to face is good so that the teacher has an idea and can ask questions as needed. As a teacher of a "specials" class I would also suggest giving them something in writing as well. Teachers that do gym, music, art, etc. see a number of children during the week (I see about 425 different students each week) Having things in wirting makes it easier to keep it straight. In Our daughter's letter we included that holding hands with other children was out. Also she is in preschool and have free play time. We asked the teachers to watch that she didn't carry toys around with her injured arm bent because she is developing a contracture.