Menlo Park Campus
815 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
When your child is faced with a sudden or chronic health challenge, your first priority is seeking the best medical care available. As your child moves forward, the time comes to return to academics at the right pace and in the right format. If you are wondering how to balance school and healing, creating a customized care plan and finding a supportive educational environment can help.
Children facing health challenges may be in the hospital, recovering at home, or involved in regular therapy. All of these priorities rightfully take time away from learning. Especially in a traditional classroom setting, children with health challenges might find these obstacles difficult to overcome. Young people often feel embarrassed about the visual signs of their illness or other misunderstandings that arise when their illness is not so easily seen.
Some students with health challenges frequently face include:
Parenting children with health challenges will undoubtedly strengthen your advocacy skills. Not only is your child’s education important to their cognitive development, social skills, and psychological well-being, but it is their right under federal law. When you feel the time is right for your child to return to learning, there are things you can do to help them succeed.
These tips for how to balance school with health challenges can help your child excel in academics and reach their educational goals while keeping their physical and mental health a top priority.
You and your child will need to decide how much information you will share with the school administration, teachers, and fellow students. By doing so, you foster their understanding while opening the lines of communication from the school back to your family.
By scheduling regular communication and setting up an easy-to-use method, you can keep an eye on how your child is doing in that particular environment. Speaking to your child on a daily basis about the challenges they encountered will allow you to take appropriate actions to support their health and their studies simultaneously.
The school your child attends, whether in person or online, should be ready and able to provide the extra support children with health challenges need. These accommodations are designed to help young people with health challenges to have full access to education.
Parenting children with health challenges means walking a fine line between encouragement and asking too much. Recognizing when your child is reaching their limits is essential to helping them find balance. Make sure that they know you support their healing first, and that doing their best on schoolwork is all you expect.
Also encourage your child to spend some of their energy on keeping friendships and social connections healthy. Home or hospital visits, online connections, and social media have great value for children with health challenges. These moments can be great for boosting morale, allowing your child to relax, and keeping them connected to their peers.
Refer to your doctor’s recommendations about how soon your child can return to school, how much time they should spend in class or studying, and other limiting factors your child may face due to medications, treatments, or as a result of their illness. In some cases, the traditional school year can feel like a ticking clock, but this does not have to be the case.
There are many virtual learning schools and even private middle and high schools that focus on one-on-one learning. At Lydian Academy, for example, students can enroll at any time and attend classes on campus, virtually, or in a combination of the two. One-on-one On-Demand classes with flexible scheduling can help students recover from a single missed class and complete their requirements in time for graduation to the next grade.
Virtual or hybrid schools allow students to attend classrooms without leaving home, when that is ideal, and return to campus without feeling behind on their studies. Virtual or in-person classes focused on a single student can move at the pace and schedule that works for your child. Exploring these options can open doors for your child to not only keep up while dealing with health challenges, but to focus on subjects that interest them in preparation for college.
Everything about one-on-one learning is focused on helping a single student excel. Whether you choose a full-time private school or use private Tutoring or Virtual Summer School to help your child catch up, partnering with a school that focuses on individualized learning plans for all students can be an empowering choice for your family.
Children with health challenges are faced with daily challenges that can set back their dreams of higher education and career success. At Lydian Academy, we do not ask our students to choose between their best health and their learning goals. We work with students and parents to create the educational setting that supports their dreams and helps them overcome these obstacles.
With a continuous enrollment model, your child can enroll in Lydian Academy at any time. Our one-on-one educational model allows rolling admissions. When your child is ready to return to school or struggles in a traditional classroom setting, they can start quickly and work at their own pace with an instructor who focuses on their individual needs and learning style.
Lydian Academy was founded to help students who need a flexible and individualized education to thrive and achieve their best. If your child faces health challenges and you are interested in enrolling them in a supportive, individualized learning environment, contact us today for a tour of our campuses or a virtual open house. Understanding the options available will help you fully support your child in finding balance and success in their academic endeavors.
