An Open Letter
to the Parents
of Your Child's Classmates
Those of us who have spent time in the workforce know that you can tell who the parents of small kids are; they're the ones that always have the sniffles that they picked up from their kids who got it from day care or school. That's just how it goes—and that's for the healthy ones.

But for kids on chemo, with suppressed immune systems, exposure to the regular kid stuff can be, well, deadly. So what to do about school? Should you? Shouldn't you? Do you have a choice?

Squirrel Tales' friend and contributor, Gary sent along this letter to the parents of his daughter's classmates. Fill in the blanks as you need and make copies—it'll go a long way toward easing your mind.
(Microsoft Word® downloadable copy available)

Please enjoy Gary's other works:

An Open Letter to Parents                   (Date)

Dear Parents,
Our child, NAME, is a member of this year's (fill in grade) class. He/She was diagnosed with a form of cancer called ______. Right now, he/she is in remission and doing very well and we expect her to continue to be well.

We are writing this letter for three reasons:

  1. The first is to make you aware of her disease and help you to understand.
  2. The second is to assure you that it is not contagious in any way to your child.
  3. And the third is, as a parent, to ask for your help.

    Our child's cancer is being controlled by chemotherapy, (that's why he/she doesn't have much hair). The medicines she takes kills the cancer cells in the blood stream, but it also kills some of the normal cells in the process. When normal cells die, there is the problem of lower immunity, which means it is more difficult for her body to fight off an infection, especially viral infections like chicken pox, measles, the flu, conjunctivitis, and strep throat, etc.

    We just need to know if she is exposed to any of the "normal" kid stuff we all grew up with because it could present a problem to her. As long as we know about it, we can take steps to prevent it or lessen the effects.

    Please, contact us or the school nurse/teacher to let us know if your child is/has any medical concerns that we should be aware of—we just need to know.

Please, at any time, feel at ease to ask us any questions or address any concerns you may have. Thank you so much for your help. We sincerely appreciate it.

Sincerely,
(Your Name & Phone)

Cc: School Nurse
Cc: Teacher


Microsoft Word Download

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