# Son missing school, juvinile court date this week



## Guest (Nov 29, 2004)

Can anyone help us? My son has IBS and has only attended 4 days since Sept. The Vice Principal called the truent officer in front of me and told her that my son is "willingly" not attending school. She went on to tell me that he's faking and after I leave for work, he is just goofing around the house. So this week, my husband, my son, and I must go to juvinile court. The truent officer filed papers saying that my son is a child in need of supervision. The doctors here in Va say he's not sick enough to stay home. Any ideas?????Thank you.


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## Sarah C (Nov 22, 2004)

I don't really have much experience in this matter, but I do have a few suggestions. First of all, is he seeing a GI specialist or just a regular doctor? If he's not seeing a specialist, one may be more able to both treat him and to help you in court explain the issues. You could also see if a GI specialist would give you a statement explaining IBS and how it can keep you out of school.Second, would he be able to qualify for homebound education? If he was able to do that, which wouldn't involve some of the issues that can arise with IBS and school, then truancy wouldn't be an issue.As a last resort, would you be able to/want to register him as a homeschooler? You could return him to public schools when he's well enough.Good luck in court, and I hope he's feeling better soon


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2004)

THANK YOU for your reply. The doctors here in Va say he's not sick enough to stay home. He's also seeing a therapist, but the school will only accept a medical doctor's note, and the social worker does not count. We have seen 2 local GI specialists nearby as well as one of the top docs at the University of Md, a leading center for Pediatric gastro problems. If any of the doctor's would sign saying he's too sick to go to school, then the school would provide homebound instruction. I suppose my only alternative is to Homeschool him.


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## Sarah C (Nov 22, 2004)

That's too bad about the doctors...would the therapist be willing to give a statement to the court? Also, depending on his age, there are some online schools that you could formally enroll him in and he would not be counted truant. If you can't get a doctor to agree with you, the only thing I can think of is to take him out of public schools. That way either you could homeschool him or enroll him in an online school (if possible).


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## Arch-Angel (Aug 13, 2004)

I think your doctors suck, i think they need to do some more research on IBS. it is very debilitating. maybe we should all write letters to the juvinile court, explaining how debilitating to all 12000 of us ;P that'd work quite nicely i'd think. hehe.


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## Audioslave626 (Jan 2, 2005)

maybe we should all write letters to the juvinile court, explaining how debilitating to all 12000 of usYah dude I hear you all to clear


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2005)

Thanks for your support. Here is an update: We went to our court hearing and explained about his illness, explained what we've been doing to try to help him. The judge "deferred" the sentence for six months. We are now home-schooling him (at our own expense). The probation officer will be checking up on us that he is doing the work and at the end of the six months the charges will be dismissed.By the way, I took my son to the #2 doctor in the entire country for pediatric gastro at the U of Md in Baltimore and he was wonderful. He patiently explained to my son what is happening and wrote a letter saying that when a person is having a flair up of IBS they can in fact be incapacitated. Yes we presented it at court.Best wishes to you all.


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## Sarah C (Nov 22, 2004)

congratulations on working it out! I hope he starts feeling better soon.


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## JackieGian (Mar 23, 2002)

Here are a couple of articles on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/sec504.index.htm http://www.504idea.org/504resources.html


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## writefx (Jan 25, 2005)

I've just read your story and I was horrified by the reaction of the school. I hope that things will turn out for the best.I had a scenario which was similar in ways where no one seems to understand how it is for the child.


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## 17367 (Mar 26, 2006)

Thankfully my school is understanding. I also miss A LOT of school. My doctor says I schoold be tought at home by a toutor or my parents. I'm also getting a 504. I have had problems with people not believing me. They just don't understand the pain. My doctor says to try to eliminate as much stress as I can from my life because stress make IBS worse. I hope things get better.


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