The "Forgotten" At Risk

Format

Poster Presentation

Location

Harborside Center

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

The proposal relates to the strand, “Head”: Academic Achievement & Leadership as well as the strand, "Hear": Social & Emotional Skills. The "forgotten" at risk student is those students who are hospital/ home bound students. These students are completely removed from the classroom for significant periods of time with limited classroom interactions with peers and the school community. In addition, these students receive a less than equal education. This creates achievement gaps that puts these students behind in their academic careers. These students deal with a huge emotional stress as well. Besides the treatments they receive that can be tasking and emotional draining; these students also have the stress of falling behind academically as well as socially with their peers. Hospital/ home bound students are extremely at risk, but very few truly understand their plight because they don't think about them. Out of sight, out of mind.

Brief Program Description

Quality educational experiences or school wide experiences should not just be for those who attend the classroom and school. What about those students who physically can not attend because of some sort of medical condition? Aren't these students important and deserve the same academic achievement and emotional attachment as their peers who attend school everyday? Find out about these forgotten at risk students and ways that you can make their school years "normal."

Summary

Who are the forgotten at risk students? Don't know? Think about those that should be there, but aren't. Need another clue? Is there anyone who is not in your class or school because of medical conditions or chronic illnessess? Clued in? You probably didn't think of those students because "Out of sight, out of mind." Learn why its important and how you can bridge that gap from the hospital/home to the classroom.

Evidence

Every school system has a hospital/home bound policy. The rhetoric is present to address the needs of those students academically, but is there any follow through. How well do these students achieve academically? Do the assigned teachers really instruct these students as they would "normal" or even "at risk" students physically present at school? Hospital/home bound students are classified as at risk and special needs. These students require the same level of instruction with the same level of interventions regardless whether they are present in class. In fact, they need extra. Different medical conditions that create extended absences from school can make learning extremely difficult. In addition, the emotional stress that comes with those diagnoses only amplifies the support they need. Due to medical advances, medical issues that once were terminal are not chronic conditions. This creates another at risk category of students. The current research presents the difficulty of schools trying to follow the fluctuating laws dealing with special needs students in the chronic illness arena. A responsive school can improve the quality of life for those students as well as assist in an academic success. It is very vital that these students feel and be connected with their peers and school during their absences. The emotional aspect plays a significant part in their learning. Dealing with their illness is tough, but adding the isolation from their peers and school adds to the at risk factors of being academically, emotionally, and socially stunted.

Biographical Sketch

Tate Wilson earned a M. A. in Middle Grades Education from Mercer University in 1998 and a Leadership Certification add-on from Georgia College and State University in 2003. He has been working with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice as a teacher within the Georgia Preparatory Academy for over 18 years with a slight departure of 4 years as a Regional Staff Training Coordinator within DJJ. He has also been for the last 6 years an Adjunct Faculty member with Central Georgia Technical College. Besides his career endeavors, Wilson has a wife and two children. His oldest, a daughter, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 9 who is now 17. She is currently living with her disease as a chronic illness due to experimental chemotherapy, but has had difficulty with school because of her chronic illness. He also has a son who has Asperger's that has been affected by his sister's illness. Even in the midst of all this, Wilson is completing his Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership and Curriculum Development (ABD) from Nova Southeastern University.

Keyword Descriptors

chronic illness, at risk, academic achievement, special education, special needs

Presentation Year

2016

Start Date

3-8-2016 4:00 PM

End Date

3-8-2016 5:30 PM

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Mar 8th, 4:00 PM Mar 8th, 5:30 PM

The "Forgotten" At Risk

Harborside Center

Quality educational experiences or school wide experiences should not just be for those who attend the classroom and school. What about those students who physically can not attend because of some sort of medical condition? Aren't these students important and deserve the same academic achievement and emotional attachment as their peers who attend school everyday? Find out about these forgotten at risk students and ways that you can make their school years "normal."