Save My Seat!!

For kids, being in school is part of their daily and normal lives. Adults have jobs, kids have school. While mom and dad are at work, making sure that she has a roof over her head and food in front of her, Sam is at school learning of the world that surrounds him: the colors it’s made of, the kinds of people that fill it, the animals that roam it, the tastes and smells and sounds and textures it contains, the hardness and softness it has. School is the place where the world around Sam is being proven to be a safe and controlled environment. Until one day, the normality and safety of a fun and adventurous world to discover is disrupted by cancer and takes him from exploration to hospitalization. The drastic change of life that takes a child from studying, to being the studied, is world-wrecking. Not only is the child affected by it, but his parents, his peers and teachers are, too. POST’s Save My Seat program for Kids with Cancer seeks to help bring the ‘normal’ of school back into the lives of these children by rounding them, their parents, school’s personnel, and community based-partners together to make it happen.

POST’s method to do this involves professional level education and strategies that will equip the parents, teachers, and peers to create a healthy environment for the child to re-enter school in. You will be coached to become better advocates for your child. The key is that we address your child’s needs with you and customize a plan specifically for your child. Our multi-focus approach increase your child’s academic success by partnering with everyone who has a role in their success: You, your child, your child’s oncologist, the teacher, guidance counselor, school nurse, ESE or 504 coordinator.

POST Therapists will bring your child’s teachers and parents together for a School Re-Entry meeting to create an education plan best suited for the your child. Our therapists will educate classmates on the importance of treating their sick classmate with care and sensitivity he/she deserves. To make sure your child’s seat isn’t empty, a stuffed animal will serve as a place-holder to remind fellow classmates that he/she is still part of the class. Printed outreach materials will also be given to your child’s teachers, guidance counselors, school nurses and other members of the school team. Three-hundred and sixty degrees of coverage in these children’s lives to make sure that ‘normal’ can be accessible to these extraordinary cancer warriors again.

But for POST to provide this service to the families they help, it takes the support of others. Just like the child’s success in school is connected to the service they are receiving, POST’s success in helping these children is connected to people who believe in their mission: that no family should walk through Cancer alone.