Parent tells board his daughter’s 504 accommodations were not followed after on-campus fractures

Donnie Hill told the board his daughter, a JEJ Moore Middle School student, suffered complications after surgery and returned to school under a health-care plan and a 504 accommodation. Hill said the health-care plan was not distributed to the choir teacher, the 504 language was vague and the student later broke a left femur on school grounds during choir.

“I went with three pages worth of questions about why and what happened to my daughter on that day,” Hill said, describing a week without answers and what he called inadequate initial communication. He told the board the school’s on-site physical therapist removed the student’s walker and that the school did not follow the written health-care directives he had provided.

Hill said a subsequent 504 meeting was held and that staff and medical providers attended, but that the family had not received an updated written 504 plan by the time of the board meeting and that the plan’s language still differed from the health-care plan the family provided.

Board members offered sympathy and said administrators would follow up. Rob Ealy said he was saddened to hear the account and asked staff to gather information; Miss Crist and other board members apologized publicly and thanked the parent for coming forward. Doctor Lyle was asked to contact the family to follow up.

The board did not debate policy at length in public that evening; members said they would gather more information and pursue internal review with the administration.