Medical Leave Policy at Berkeley High School

Related pages: Attendance Policy at BHS ... School Absences due to Illness

3 parent questions ▼

Parent Q&A

Select any title to view the full question and replies.

  • Home/ Hospital Instruction Berkeley High

    –
    Jan 24, 2024

    Hello, My son needs surgery and we may not be able to postpone until summer. He will need to be out of school 4-8 weeks. He is a current sophmore at Berkeley High. I am asking for advice from parents who have had a child go through the home/hospital instruction program at BHS. Maybe I could reach out to you? How much instruction guidance did your child receive? How did they keep up with their electives work since it seems this program is only for core classes? Was the workload manageable? Was the instruction in person or over zoom? Was is well coordinated with their BHS teachers? Did the instruction start promptly? Were there any drawbacks? Thanks!

    Jan 24, 2024

    My child did HHS and it was fantastic. The program only has up to 5 hours of classroom time weekly with 1 teacher. They assess your student and figure out how much additional time out of class the student can handle. Expectations are based on this. The teacher has control over assessing if the student has met the requirements. In our case my child was able to get many credits in about 2 months time. The courses were all core but it allowed her to catch up and excel. I highly recommend it! 

    Jan 29, 2024

  • Berkeley High medical leave for knee surgery

    –
    Jan 14, 2024

    My son may need knee surgery and may need to be out of school for 6 weeks. He is a sophmore at BHS. I want him to successfully finish the academic year but getting around BHS with an injured or post operative knee just isn't going to work for him. Any recommendations for how to get him through spring semester classes? I'm considering finding an online high school, or ideally staying in his BHS class but maybe working with a tutor. Fusion or Tilden (they are so expensive but seem like they could work). Any ideas welcome for keeping him academically caught up. Thx!

    Jan 14, 2024

    I currently have a kid on crutches at BHS due to a knee injury and my older child was on crutches at BHS for about two months because of hip surgery. It is not ideal, that is for sure. They get elevator keys and do the best they can. At any given time, there are multiple kids on crutches. Teachers are very accommodating. The fire alarm last week was awful since my kid had to go down the stairs on crutches and that is so dangerous. But that said, definitely reach out to your kid’s vice principal and counselor. Independent Studies may be an option. I don’t know your exact situation, but a lot of kids get around with crutches at BHS just fine. It sucks for sure but they get through it. 

    Jan 15, 2024

    Send a letter to request a 504 plan, and also call his counselor. The reason I say send a letter, is there are specific deadlines the school must follow after receiving a written request. Then you can use the tutoring from Tilden or another center so that he will be prepared for his finals.

    Jan 15, 2024

    BUSD has a program called Home Hospital (HHS). It is run out of the Independent School. You just get a doctor’s note. They provide up to 5 hours of in person/remote learning with an assigned teacher. The teacher will assign HW at the level the student can manage. The teacher has full control to assess when/whether the student has become proficient. For my child it was amazing. They were able to complete a large amount of courses in a short amount of time. 

    Jan 15, 2024

    If there is ANY way to postpone to summer the surgery that would be your best option. Beyond that, have you spoken to a counselor at BHS? They must have encountered this before. Tilden would work but as you mention is crazy expensive (and also their in-person classes are on the 2nd floor of their Albany campus.) I'm sure you know his sophomore grades will count towards his UC GPA (if he is interested in applying to the UC's), so I'd be hesitant to switch  mid-year if at all possible. He could do UC Scout, but it's tough for some kids to do self-paced classes with little help. I'd rely on the guidance of either the BHS counselors or pull in an outside college counselor for some advice. Good luck!

    Jan 15, 2024

  • Berkeley High Student and Missed school for medical reasons

    –
    Sep 22, 2022

    Hello, 

    My son, a Berkeley High freshman, may need to miss school to have orthopedic surgery. He would likely miss at least 2-3 weeks. I'm trying to understand what our options would be in terms of keeping him up in school. Looking for advice from parents that have been through something similar. Do teacher's modify work expectations while the student is out or is all work still required to be made up somehow. Is there a temporary online platform he could work with to keep him up? I've also contacted his counselor to see what she says. 

    Thanks!

    Sep 22, 2022

    For planned extended absences there's a temporary independent study plan that requires the signature of each teacher and some administrators. Beyond assignments and communication via google classroom there's no instructional material online as a matter of course (that I'm aware of). My daughter has done this for a week at a time twice, but never longer - I'm not sure what that would mean with respect to expectations and grading, but in her case there were no differences, only flexibility to take any quizzes etc upon her return.

    Sep 26, 2022

    My BHS sophomore missed the first week of school due to having COVID. All teachers were very accommodating and everything was on Google classroom. He could keep up with assignments and the ones he needed help with, the teachers just said they would help him catch up when he got back. Granted this was the first week, so not a whole lot going on. Your student should give his teachers a heads up and see what can be done. I have found the counselors at BHS to be pretty useless. I would talk to the teachers directly first and then if they don't seem accommodating, take it to the vice principal of U9, Tonia Coleman. She's pretty great.  

    Sep 26, 2022

    You just need to speak to the office about setting up an individualized instruction plan for your child.  That happens all the time. Schools are required to do it by law. It helps the student and it helps the school for attendance and planning purposes. 

    Here is what Berkeley's 2022-2023 Annual Notice to Parents says: "AVAILABILITY OF INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTION/PRESENCE OF PUPIL WITH TEMPORARY DISABILITY IN HOSPITAL (EC §§48206.3, 48207-48208):  Individualized instruction is available to students with temporary disabilities whose disability makes attendance in the regular day classes or alternative education program in which the student is enrolled impossible or inadvisable.  Parents of students hospitalized or with a temporary disability shall notify the school district(s) where the student attends, resides and/or where the student receives care if an individualized instruction program is desired."  (This notice is available online.)

    Sep 26, 2022