When you have a child with any special needs you as the parent quickly become the best advocate for your child. Many children with special needs have some educational challenges and this can become a problem. For example if your child has diabetes and has to leave the class numerous times in the day to test their blood sugar, get insulin or just get a snack to keep their blood sugar up they are missing classroom time and they are missing the instruction that is taking place while they take care of their illness. Children with epilepsy may miss classes due to seizures that occurred before school, seizures during school. With all types of seizures whether they are grand mal seizures or absent seizures have physical effects that last longer than the seizure itself.
Children that have epilepsy have a higher likelihood of having ADD, ADHD and other learning and behavioral issues. When these issues affect your child’s education you have to learn about the rights that your child has through the No Child Left Behind Act and specifically under the OHI section; OHI stands for Other Heath Impaired. With the No Child Left Behind Act children have the right to the same educational experience as any child without a disability. When most people think of the No Child Left Behind Act they think of children with noticeable, significant disabilities such as Autism, Down’s Syndrome, deaf or blind; the types of disabilities you can see. People do not think of the disabilities that are not physically apparent as being covered under 504 OHI.
Part of being a parent of a child with any chronic illness or disease is making sure that your child has the best possible life they can. You need to become familiar with your child’s legal rights and protections given to them under the No Child Left Behind Act.