New student with T1D- mom no-showing to our meetings

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Just need to vent. New student to our school starting next Tuesday. He had T1D, is 6 years old, in first grade. This is our first T1D kid, so naturally, there is a lot of planning and prepping we are doing before he starts. I had one meeting with mom last week and specifically told her to bring me all of the paper work from her endocrinologist after the appointment, including the Diabetes Medical Management Plan, emergency plan, etc. He has no 504 in place from his previous school. I had coordinated a meeting with our AP, SPED, Counselor and me to go over everything yesterday. I stayed late for the meeting and she no-showed. I called her and she apologized profusely and we rescheduled for 8:00 am today. It is now 8:54. She is not here and now isn't answering my calls and texts. The whole group was gathered again waiting for her. School is already in session so it is VERY hard to get those folks together. I am very frustrated. I have to do a training for the teachers tomorrow and spent several hours of my free time yesterday afternoon preparing the presentation, researching, etc. I have likely spent about 10-15 hours prepping to receive this student. Part of me hopes she just has cold feet and goes back to his old neighborhood school, but the other part of me would be so mad that I wasted all of this time if he ends up not coming...

Another vote for Google Voice to use to text. Is tied into your email, you type messages on the computer they are sent as texts to the numbers you enter. Can be set up so all responses go directly to your email..

Specializes in LTC.

Just a comment on the "texting to parents" thing, there is an app (I have an Iphone) called "Remind" that my daughter's school used last year. I'm not sure how it was set up on their ends, but I got text messages from her teacher throughout the year.

off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

At my school, we do not have landlines, except at the front desk, so all staff get a cell phone to use. I would NEVER text from my own personal phone.

We are assigned IPhones to use for school communication with parents. (Of course we have the office landline as well.)

Us too, but we do not have landlines so all staff can call/text using their school-issued phones. We have the type of population that honestly, the more means of communication with them, the better- hard to reach, frequent changes of address, etc.

Ugh. Boundaries. Some people don't have them. I insist on keeping my work and personal lives separate and that goes for who gets my personal phone number.

I've never been asked to text but have been warned by other school nurses I've worked with to never to call from my personal phone. I communicate via note, email or phone call from my office phone. If someone is insisting and the administration wants me to do it I'd be requesting a work cell phone for this purpose.

It is a work phone. We do not have landlines here so all staff use cell phones issued by the school. We have a population that can be hard to reach, change numbers/addresses frequently, etc. We use all means of contacting them but never from personal emails or phones.

And just as an update to this post, mom no-showed again yesterday!!! I went ahead and trained two staff and told them once I meet with mom I would go over the kid's specific treatment and emergency plan. Mom is supposed to be here in 6 minutes (I am not holding my breath). I still am planning the training for the rest of my staff at 1:45 but I was given permission to tell mom that if she did not come in this morning, he was not allowed to start school next Tuesday. HUGE liability for us if the kid gets dropped off next Tuesday without any of us knowing his plan. Mom doesn't seem to understand that.

Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..
And just as an update to this post, mom no-showed again yesterday!!! I went ahead and trained two staff and told them once I meet with mom I would go over the kid's specific treatment and emergency plan. Mom is supposed to be here in 6 minutes (I am not holding my breath). I still am planning the training for the rest of my staff at 1:45 but I was given permission to tell mom that if she did not come in this morning, he was not allowed to start school next Tuesday. HUGE liability for us if the kid gets dropped off next Tuesday without any of us knowing his plan. Mom doesn't seem to understand that.

I was hoping someone was going to tell her he couldn't start!! I'm not sure how I still get shocked at parents lack of caring about their CHILDREN'S HEALTH!!!

Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

My son's school has a system in place where teachers can text parents and even students without actually know their phone numbers. They type the message into a computer app and the message is sent. Not sure what it is called but if you school district has an IT department they could probably fine out for you.

Hppy

Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..
My son's school has a system in place where teachers can text parents and even students without actually know their phone numbers. They type the message into a computer app and the message is sent. Not sure what it is called but if you school district has an IT department they could probably fine out for you.

Hppy

Ohhh, I like this, something to look into. Thanks!!

Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.
And just as an update to this post, mom no-showed again yesterday!!! I went ahead and trained two staff and told them once I meet with mom I would go over the kid's specific treatment and emergency plan. Mom is supposed to be here in 6 minutes (I am not holding my breath). I still am planning the training for the rest of my staff at 1:45 but I was given permission to tell mom that if she did not come in this morning, he was not allowed to start school next Tuesday. HUGE liability for us if the kid gets dropped off next Tuesday without any of us knowing his plan. Mom doesn't seem to understand that.

Did she show?

And just as an update to this post, mom no-showed again yesterday!!! I went ahead and trained two staff and told them once I meet with mom I would go over the kid's specific treatment and emergency plan. Mom is supposed to be here in 6 minutes (I am not holding my breath). I still am planning the training for the rest of my staff at 1:45 but I was given permission to tell mom that if she did not come in this morning, he was not allowed to start school next Tuesday. HUGE liability for us if the kid gets dropped off next Tuesday without any of us knowing his plan. Mom doesn't seem to understand that.

I don't know if your school would be willing to do this, but, back when I worked in inpatient child psych, we had some kids who were admitted to the unit and, when it was time for family sessions and discharge planning meetings, the parent(s) would not show (sometimes they were v. open about telling us that they were going to use the opportunity of the kid being hospitalized to go out of town on vacation!) When we had kids who were otherwise ready for discharge and we couldn't get the parent(s) to show up for meetings or to pick them up, we would call and leave a message notifying them that, if they failed to show for a scheduled meeting again, we would be reporting them to CPS for medical neglect. That always worked. They would be at the next meeting, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on time, ready to go.

Maybe it's time to get the social worker involved.

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