Since Elly was diagnosed 3 years ago, the biggest fear I have had with her (and Anne for that matter) was school. I was petrified of how we were going to handle that and keep her safe. I had a little bit of practice last year when we placed her in pre-K at Kindercare. That turned out to be the best experience, for Elly and for me. Kindercare cared for Elly better than I ever would have imagined. Last September we placed Elly into Kindercare for 2 mornings a week. We had Animas come out and do a training on how to work her pump and ADA came to give the staff glucagon training. The only thing Kindercare won't do is bolus for high blood sugar (and due to being a private school, they can do this). With Elly being on a pump, they would bolus for food, where if she was still MDI, they would not and I would have to go in and do that. Also, with Elly having celiac, I had to provide all of her food rather than her eating what is made there. This, in some ways, made it easier because i would write the carb counts on all of the food and then they would bolus after she ate. They kept me informed of anything that happened with her blood sugar and called with any questions of concerns that they had. Over the summer, we went to 3 half days a week, mostly to get Elly prepared to start going 5 half days a week in Kindergarten.
At the end of the school year, Kindercare had a graduation for all of the pre-K kiddos. It was the cutest thing ever! The kids wore little mortarboards and were given a diploma and a balloon. Way too cute!!
Anne at Elly's graduation.
All the kiddos coming outside for graduation.
Elly is getting her diploma from the center director.
Elly getting her balloon, which is the biggest reason she wanted to go! And I am NOT kidding!!!
With her diploma and balloon!
My little graduate!
As we got closer and closer to September, I started to get more and more nervous. Kindercare had treated us so well, that I was hoping the public schools would do the same. In April I had called and talked with the school nurse who assured me that Elly, as is all of her diabetic kids, take 1st priority and that we need to get a 504 in place before school starts. About a week before school starting, I met with the nurse and then a few days later, we held a 504 meeting so everything Elly would need would be on paper and legal. Our nurse assured me that she would be at our school for at least the first few days while Elly was there to make sure that everyone that needed to be training in working with her was trained correctly (our nurse in in charge of 7 other schools in the district).
I am happy to report that so far, everything has been going smoothly and I am so pleased with how our school is working with Elly. Our nurse is fabulous and I couldn't ask for a better nurse or a better office staff, who is the main caretakers for Elly when the nurse isn't around. Elly is happy and loves school. She is in afternoon kindergarten, which I requested because I wanted to know where her blood sugars were trending before sending her off, and that has been wonderful. Her teacher (a man!!!) is great and Elly loves him. Our school has a very strict dress code (uniform actually) and that has actually made it easier for me to dress Elly. She has to wear navy pants/skirt/shorts/jumper and then can have a white or navy collared shirt. She has to wear tied athletic shoes as well. I had a navy pump pouch made for her which I love love love!!! It hugs her body beautifully and easily hides under her shirts, as she is beginning to become a little more self-conscious about it. I make sure her CGM sensor is places fairly high up on her arm so most of it can be hidden under her sleeves as well.
For a while I won't be venturing far from the school, just in case...but I have great faith that they will do what is needed and Elly is in the best hands possible when I can't have her with me. I couldn't ask for a better situation and thank my lucky stars that she is where she is.
