Bridging the Gap Between Hospital and School: Addressing the Academic and Social-Emotional Needs of Students with Chronic Illness

This dissertation in practice examined the literature and a sample of existing programs that addressed the educational and social-emotional challenges of students with chronic illness in order to bridge the gap between hospital discharge and school re-entry. Literature showed that the hospital homebound setting was problematic for chronically ill students due to minimal hours of academic instruction and little interaction with peers. Students with chronic illness were at higher risk for maladaptive behaviors, lower educational attainment, and higher use of social services. Programs created at other facilities to address this problem were visited and reviewed for pertinent information such as funding sources, location, division of responsibility, and relationships with school districts. Those findings were incorporated into a hospital-based learning center model designed to address both the academic and social-emotional needs of elementary students using the Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework. The design process included a focus group of hospital professionals (music therapy, child life, and family-centered care), school district partners (literacy), university partners (art), and parents of chronically ill students. The focus group reviewed the model and provided feedback on the design based on their expertise and modifications were made by the researcher to the design. Webex-Teams, an online meeting platform, was used for stakeholders to review modifications to the physical layout and analyze a proposed sample interdisciplinary session plan. The final model design included five components: literacy, art, music therapy, play, and technology, a physical floorplan, and an interdisciplinary session plan to address the academic and social well-being of chronically ill students that can be replicated at any hospital facility