Hi Hope,
We are dealing with attendance issues for the first time this year. My son is in fourth grade and has, up until about a year ago, had mostly digestive issues and has been able to attend school regularly. This year, however, his disease has become more respiratory and we have been in the hospital twice since November to try to maintain his high lung function. In November, he went to school with his picc line in place for two weeks after our admittance. This time, because of some bullying issues, it was not smart to send him to school with his picc line and I am home schooling him during these few weeks of iv meds. I tend to keep my children home sooner than most parents, simply because having Andrew, I am more aware of how common cold viruses can affect others. My children both do very well in school and I am a very involved Mom, so keeping them caught up on school curriculum is not a problem.
The issue is that most of the time, CFers do not "look" sick. When Andrew was beginning his most recent exacerbation, he was still going to school, running on the playground, participating in PE...but nobody knew that when he came home he was wiped out. He would hang out on the couch the rest of the afternoon. And when he did run around, his endurance was not nearly what it normally is. These are clues that school staff do not look for. They have 30 kids they are responsible for and Andrew being short of breath in the back of the classroom is not something they are going to notice right away. It is up to us as parents to catch all of these early signs of lung infection so we can get a jump on fighting it before it causes lung damage. That is our job. And it has to come before school attendance records.
As long as your niece stays caught up with her school work, absences should not affect her progress in school. If there are legitimate reasons why she should be home, then she should be home. A common cough to some could be a start of a lung infection for her. A day or two at home to lay low and stay away from a room full of infected kids could keep her from getting really sick.
I must also add that, as a parent, sometimes it is hard to make that call. Sometimes we will make good decisions, sometimes we will look back and wish we had thought through things a little more. But at the end of the day, we can only do our best. Sometimes that means keeping our eye on the big picture of maintaining lung health and realizing that a spelling test can be made up on Monday.