It’s back to school season so we wanted to remind parents of children with epilepsy how Epilepsy Ireland help can support you, your child, and their school with their return to the classroom and provide some important information on epilepsy and school.
First and foremost, it is recommended that any child with epilepsy who could have seizures in school has an individualised Care Plan. These plans should cover:
- what types of seizures the child has
- what triggers the seizures (if known) and which triggers might be modifiable
- how seizures are to be managed from a seizure first aid perspective
- who is to administer first aid
- whether emergency medication is prescribed for prolonged seizures and if prescribed, that it is in date
- who is to administer emergency medication
- details of who is to be contacted and when
- what an emergency is for that individual child
- arrangements for recovery
- any effects on concentration, behaviour and learning from the seizures or medication
It is important to disclose your child’s epilepsy to their school to ensure that they know how to support your child. While many schools will work to follow care plans, it is important to note that individual schools may have their own individual policies about seizure incidences in school. This is important to discuss with your child’s school in the context of your child’s individual care plan.
In terms of supporting, you, and your child with their return to the classroom, we have several resources and booklets available which may be of use. These are all linked to on our website below:
- Education Information Pack for Teachers
- Epilepsy and Children; A guide for Parents
- Epilepsy and School
- Seizure First Aid Posters
Our team of Community Resource Officers deliver epilepsy awareness talks to schools the length and breadth of the country and we can arrange such a talk for your local school. Details of your local CRO can be found by visiting the 'Our Services' section of our website. Please note, there is always significant demand for these types of sessions from schools at this time of the year so please do get in touch as soon as possible if this is something you want to arrange - and please allow some lead in time to arrange these sessions with our team.
In terms of supporting children with epilepsy themselves, we have specific offerings targeted at young people with epilepsy under our Young Epilepsy Programme. These offerings include Get ChARTy for 8-12 year olds and Teen Time for 13 – 17 year olds. More details on these events can be found by visiting the ‘Our Local Services’ section of our website.
Finally, Epilepsy Ireland also delivers Epilepsy Awareness and the Administration of Buccal Midazolam training to healthcare professionals, teachers and SNAs. This training is crucial in ensuring that education providers are fully aware of epilepsy and know how to respond to seizures where emergency medication is required. If your child’s teacher/school needs to be trained, encourage them to visit the 'Events' section of our website. They will find upcoming training dates in this section. They can also find further details on our training in the 'Training' section of our website.
Separately, our campaign for Seizure Safe School will continue across the new school year. The campaign is seeking a more proactive approach to epilepsy in the classroom by seeking policy changes to ensure epilepsy education is part of initial teacher training. You can find out more about this campaign by visiting the 'Advocacy' section of our website.
We would like to wish parents, students, and teachers every best wish for the year ahead and please do not hesitate to contact our team if we can be of assistance!