Gretchen,

Both my daughters Gabriella and Christianna attend a private school.  Christi has SWCAH.  Their first reaction was, No way, we cannot have a child with such a medical problem here at the school.  (This was after I had explained her condition to the directors assistant, applied for the school, had my sister sleep on the gym floor overnight to get them in and paid their tuition fees).   I flipped, and they agreed to have a conference with me, her teacher, the director and their school nurse.  The school nurse (which the school is lucky to have), is a trauma nurse who works at VCS half days.  I came in with her meds, an orange (for them to practice) and a notebook with all they needed to know about CAH and a medical kit for her (there is a prison not to far away and they will go into lockdown if someone escapes, fortunately that has never happened).  After meeting with them they agreed to have her attend, took the notebook and her medicine and schooled everyone who would have contact with her on her condition and how to treat her.  I was taken aback at their "fear" of having a child with special medical needs attend (especially since it is a Christian school), and it was my first realization that private schools can pick and choose the children with "conditions" they wish to attend.  If it weren’t for the fact that it was a christian school I would have yanked both my children immediately, placing them in public school where Christi would HAVE to be accepted.  I am glad I fought for her, but only because there IS a trauma nurse on staff each and every day of the week.  Had he not been available I would have had to rethink my decision to have them attend.

Kaye