Hospital School Transition Program

School-reentry is a major issue for children who have been hospitalized for an extended period of time or who have had intensive medical treatments, such as patients in a major pediatric cancer treatment center. A hospital-school transition program for children being discharged from the hospital is beneficial for both patients/families and the school systems.

To create an effective hospital-school transition program, it is important that a CCLS, the hospital teacher, social workers, doctors, therapists, school staff, the patient, and the family all work together as a cohesive unit. When discussing school-reentry, the CCLS, social worker, and the hospital teacher should provide information to the patient and his or her family on 504 and IEP

Pediatric brain tumors are characterized by abnormal cell growth in the brain's tissue and are treated through a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Pediatric brain tumor treatment is associated with late effects, such as physical disabilities, learning disabilities, behavioral changes, hearing problems, vision problems, a secondary cancer developing, and seizures. Leukemia is cancer of the blood cells and is characterized as an uncontrolled production of immature white blood cells. Treatments of leukemia include chemotherapy, radiation, and bone marrow transplants. There are lasting effects associated with chemotherapy/radiation, such as physical and mental changes. With this knowledge for these populations, it is essential to include FCC components in the hospital-school transition program. FCC components include the following core concepts: information sharing, dignity and respect, collaboration, and involvement. Information sharing is important to include in this school-reentry program because it is important to communicate between the entire unit in useful ways while providing complete and accurate details, and including families in the decision-making process. Dignity and respect are important for this transition program because the healthcare team should support and honor patient/family ideas to individualize the reentry process. Collaboration is a key concept of FCC that should be included in the school-reentry program because it invites everyone to work together to develop the most effective and customized plan for the patient. Lastly, involvement is an important FCC concept to include in this transition program to encourage the family/patient to become as involved as they would like in the decision-making