Chronic Pain Accommodation Protocol
By: Ava Grace Rabin
I want students experiencing chronic pain in Pennsylvania to be able to learn to their fullest potential. I want them to get the learning accommodations they need to succeed like students without disabilities. People with disabilities add depth and richness to our community and should be afforded the right to an equal and appropriate education.
Schools in Pennsylvania are currently denying students with invisible, chronic pain illnesses disability accommodations. Schools in the Commonwealth deny help to students with chronic illnesses because they do not look sick and are not failing; however, denying them these basic accommodations can further exacerbate their medical conditions. If schools are willing to accommodate the students, they often have to wait to get help due to lengthy special education processes. This is unacceptable.
The research is clear, pain affects your brain (Glass & Park, 2001). Pain triggers a warning system in your brain that demands attention above all other tasks (Eccleson, 1999). As a student, this makes completing tasks challenging. It is hard to focus, perform tasks that are multifaceted and comprehend basic instructions. This can cause additional anxiety, stress and feelings of inadequacy. The increase of this psychological distress can make the chronic pain worse (Gatchel et al., 2007). Students are suffering needlessly in our schools simply because Administrators do not understand these complex illnesses and often students subjectively appear “healthy”.
I am proposing a chronic pain protocol that would give any student in Pennsylvania who has a chronic pain illness baseline accommodations. When a student receives a diagnosis of this magnitude it is a very stressful time for the entire family. Navigating the special education process is difficult and often subjective for those who have disabilities that are invisible. This protocol would ensure that when a student gets diagnosed with a chronic pain illness they could get immediate help with a doctor’s note confirming the diagnosis. These accommodations would include:
- Extra time between classes
- Extra time on assignments
- Adjusted attendance policy
- Extra set of text books for use at home
- Testing in separate, quiet room
- Extended time on tests
- Modified gym curriculum
- Access to Elevators
- Key for locker
- Note taker availability
- Education of School Nurse and faculty
Pennsylvania already has a similar protocol when students get concussions. Concussions are also invisible and could cause further harm if not accommodated properly. Like concussions, if students with chronic pain are not accommodated expediently and fairly, it can cause further distress to the student and their families. These accommodations would be the minimum that all students receive when they are diagnosed with a chronic pain illness.
Every chronic pain illness is different and not every student will need the same things. This protocol is simply the bare minimum a student should receive as they continue medical care. This is a difficult and confusing time for any student, and their struggling can only be made worse when they are not receiving the help they need. This also causes hardship for families. When their child is diagnosed with a chronic illness that causes them pain, families quickly have a lot to learn and are inundated with appointments, specialists and new medications to manage. It can be very distressing trying to navigate the world of chronic illnesses, disabilities and healthcare and it is only made harder by the obstacles our education system can create. My proposal only serves to make the lives of students with chronic illnesses and their families fair.
I was a student with many invisible illnesses that caused me to struggle in school. My parents spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to get me these basic accommodations. Despite inches of documentation, because I was not failing, the school would not provide them to me. Why is that the standard in Pennsylvania? Why, as a student with disabilities, is mediocrity enough? We are losing talent in the Commonwealth because we consider students with a chronic pain disability less of a person, not to mention causing further emotional and physical damage to the student. I am very fortunate that my family had the resources to move me to private school. I immediately got help. How many Pennsylvania students are not that fortunate?
My parents hired an educational advocate who told them I would have dropped out by high school. Today I am a volunteer EMT and I will be graduating with honors this May. I have received generous academic scholarships from several Pennsylvania universities and will be continuing my education in the state. I am a future Physician’s Assistant and plan to work with pediatric patients, like me, so that they can live full and meaningful lives. I have no doubt I will make my small corner of this world a better place, but what if my parents would have stopped fighting? Please join me in improving the lives of students with disabilities, but also improving our communities by providing students with an equal and appropriate education. We are worth it and we deserve better.
References
Eccleston, C. (1999). Pain demands attention: a cognitive-affective model of interruptive function of pain. Psychological Bulletin, 125(3), 356-366.
Gatchel, R. J., Peng, Y. B., Peters, M. L., Fuchs, P. N., Turk, D. C. (2007). The biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain: scientific advances and future directions. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 581-624.
Glass, J. M., & Park, D. C. (2001). Cognitive dysfunction in fibromyalgia. Current Rheumatology Reports, 3, 123-127.
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