Improper Supervision

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I am pulling my hair out with this situation. There is a child with Down's / Developmental delays who is mainstreamed for most of the day. She has lunch with the rest of her class, and the lunch monitors are NOT monitoring her! Almost daily she comes into my office and parks herself on the couch and refuses to leave. I have had to physically lift her, and she is not light, and I have an old back injury. If I am busy helping another child, she gets into my desk drawers, my thermometer, my pens, EVERYTHING! When I manage to shoo her out, she usually stays in the main office playing with the computer that is for visitor log ins. I have talked to the principal about this situation and nothing has changed.

I am at a complete loss as to what to do. This kid is going to end up breaking something in my office or God forbit getting ahold of scissors or something and getting hurt. I hate to think what would happen if she sneaks in when I am not at my desk. What happens when she makes a left out of the lunchroom instead of a right and makes it out the main doors! This is a huge safety issue for me, the child in question, and other kids as well. If my principal continues to do nothing, what can I do about this?

[morte, LPN, LVN]

wouldnt this amount to child neglect? hence reportable?

[Keepstanding, ASN, RN]

hi purple ! does she have a one-on-one aide with her. i would put it all back on the students aide or the teacher. obviously she need extra attention during the lunch shift and you should not be responsible. you are right, she will eventually get into something that will hurt her. you don't need these kind of problems ! good luck !

praiser :heartbeat

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

She does not have anyone one-on-one with her, which I think is most of the problem. Her teacher makes sure she gets to the lunchroom, then he takes his planning period. The main problem is after she eats no one notices when she sneaks away from the lunchroom.

As far as neglect, I don't know who to report. There are multiple people responsible for her and the office staff and I take on responsibility for her when we see her in the office. Since it is not her parents responsibility, I don't think neglect applies.

I think I will try talking to her teacher (even though he is not around at these times) and the Special Ed teacher. Something has to be done, as my back cannot take much more of this!

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

Try talking to the teacher...

though i think you will get better results if you talk to her parents who may be interested to know that this is going on everyday and that you administration is doing nothing to tighten security around her. I know you probably don't want to be "that person" so maybe talking again to the administration and mentioning that you "don''t want to have to contact her parents about the lack of supervision" may put their buns in gear.

[SchoolNurseBSN]

Are there any monitors / aides / administrators in the cafeteria?

It seems like the responsibilty should lay there.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

Honestly, I am not sure how much her parents would even care. They are that kind we see so much of, very uninvolved. But you are right, I don't want to be the one who goes there anyway. I am going to talk to the teacher and special ed dept after school to see if we can get more supervision for her.

The problem with the monitors is that they stay so busy in the cafeteria, and when they send the kids to line up and wait for the teacher to pick them up, there is often no one directly supervising them. We can see them from the office, and the AP is out there as much as she can be but she has other responsibilities.

I think my last resort will be to start asking the office staff to call the AP or principal on the radio when she will not get off the couch. Let them deal with it. Maybe that will get old fast enough for them to make some changes :)

[morte, LPN, LVN]

if she is getting special ed, is she not covered under the Dept of Mental retardation? that is where i would go with a "report"

this thought is in left field, but how about a "Dutch" door for you office, the bottom half would be shut, even when you are in the office......

[BlueeyesRN]

as an rn and mother of autistic son, i had to reply on this one.

i would communicate verbally and email special ed teacher, regular ed teacher, and principal on the problem asap. have office or principal help lift student if needed in mean time. she obviously needs to either have an aide sit with her during lunch or she needs to eat meals in her classroom. mainstreaming is not a bad thing and this poor girl is not being monitored properly. she can't help that she needs so much supervision. i would communicate with the parents about this if everyone ignores you. hopefully the parents will be vocal about it. i just don't want you to go to them first, if you are concerned about anger from principal, teacher etc.,---when all other avenues have not been explored. good luck with this difficult situation. i know they are trying to have the ard buzz word, "least restrictive environment ", but this is a safety hazard waiting to happen.

these kids need us to be understanding and inside they can be really smart they just have compulsions and issues. :heartbeat my heart goes out to her and you.

[BlueeyesRN]

please let me know the outcome...

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I will keep yall posted. I talked to her regular ed teacher yesterday and he did not even know it was a problem (which irks me because I have already mentioned it to the teacher). Today, bless his heart, he left his planning period to come sit in my office early to try and "catch her in the act". But low and behold today it was not a problem :)

I have not caught up with the special ed teacher yet but that is my next mission. If I don't get anywhere I will keep talking and emailing until something is done. I love the idea of dutch doors for my office! I'll put that on my wish list!

[Aneroo, LPN]

if she is getting special ed, is she not covered under the Dept of Mental retardation? that is where i would go with a "report"

this thought is in left field, but how about a "Dutch" door for you office, the bottom half would be shut, even when you are in the office......

We're lucky to get printer paper and lightbulbs. No chance of getting a new door when there aren't even enough chairs or books for students.

If there were an issue, it wouldn't fall under DMR, but under Dept. of Education and IDEA.