School Issues: Tips for Parents 

Educational Advocacy and Communication Tools

Planning Ahead

School, Illness, and Your Family

Educational Advocacy and Communication Tools

• A Parents' Guide to CFIDS will help you learn how to advocate for your child with chronic illness. Mary Robinson, our forum co-founder, authored this book with David S. Bell, MD, Jean Pollard, Tom Robinson, and Bonnie Floyd. Read a review of the book or purchase it from Amazon.com. The royalties from books sales help support this website!
  
  
• Shanon McQuown's Tips for Parents
  
  
• Your Child's Educational Plan - Introduces how educational law applies to students with CFS and other chronic illnesses - Excerpt from A Parents' Guide to CFIDS  
  
  
• Sample letter to the Committee on Special Education - Requesting evaluation for special education services - Explains why an IEP is more appropriate for this child than is a 504 Plan
  
  
• Meeting with the Committee on Special Education - How to prepare, communicate effectively during the meeting, and follow-up
  
  
• Accommodations & Sample Individualized Education Programs for kids with CFS, FM, or OI
  
  
• Iger Neurocognitive Assessment a tool to monitor changes in the neurocognitive symptoms of students with CFS
  
  
• Guidelines for Schools: Understanding and Accommodating CFIDS/FMS National CFIDS Foundation    See the open letters from a student to teachers and to classmates
  
  
• Be Trained as a Parent Advocate - learn to interact more effectively with the professionals caring for and educating your child 
  
  

Planning Ahead

• Gearing Up for School - For Parents of YPWCs - by Lynn Vanderzalm Youth Allied By CFIDS, Summer 1996
  
  
• Planning Ahead for Next School Year by Mary Robinson   Lyndonville News May 1999
  
  
• Parents Share Ideas for Educational Planning by Mary Robinson    Lyndonville News September 2001
  
  
• Attitude, the Gateway to Services by Lynn Vanderzalm Youth Allied By CFIDS, Fall 1997
  
  
• Writing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for Success by Barbara D. Bateman, Ph.D., J.D. Wrightslaw.com
  
  
• Toto, I have a Feeling We're Not in High School Anymore: A Handbook for Parents of Students with Disabilities The University of Montana
  
  
• See our Transition Resources for help increasing your child's independence and readiness for adulthood
  
  

School, Illness, and Your Family

• Back to School Without Your Sibling? For Siblings of CFIDS Kids (SOCKs) by Katherine Moore Youth Allied By CFIDS, Summer 1996
  
  
• See our Parenting Articles for essays about the impact of illness on the whole family
  
  
• Do you have a question not answered here? Get feedback from other parents and siblings in our forum.
  

Return to the School Page

Home	E-mail Group	Articles	Links
The Pediatric Network is run by Mary Robinson and Rebecca Moore Leibowitz. Our focus is limited to our supportive e-mail group. Although we no longer publish a newsletter, an archive of our articles and resources is available online. We encourage you to ask your health care provider about the newest medical information and how it may apply to you.

Disclaimer: The views in this website and forum are the feelings and opinions of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect all of the current theories that are being explored and published. Ask your doctor or other health care provider about all medical information that you consider applying to your situation, including the information you read in our website and forum. We take no responsibility for the decisions you or your family members make about medical care. It is up to you to verify that the information you read is correct and applies to your unique situation.