USA Funds Supports Educational Success for Hospitalized Students

Educator Terri Bolles' office is littered with tokens of appreciation — from awards, to homemade gifts to graduation invitations — from 11 years of teaching patients at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

As the educational liaison for Riley's Child Life School Program, Bolles and her three-member team oversee the educational plans of school-aged children and adolescents hospitalized at Riley during the academic year. The child-life and school program brings some normalcy to patients' lives while they are in the hospital. According to Bolles, therapeutic outlets such as games, activities and tutoring provide distraction and promote faster healing.

USA Funds^® recently awarded a $50,500 grant to the school program to help fund a teacher and educational supplies including a laptop. The grant is the third that USA Funds has made to the program, bringing to $143,500 USA Funds' total donations since 2003.

Because Riley is a referral hospital, its patients are children with chronic, long-term and, often, debilitating diseases. To ensure that hospitalization doesn't interrupt patients' education, Riley's School Program provides teachers who communicate with patients' schools to get homework, develop educational plans, tutor and help with students' re-entry to their schools after lengthy hospital stays. Occasionally, the Riley teachers' help makes the difference between academic success and falling behind, failing a grade or class, missing graduation, or even quitting school altogether.

“Students appreciate the schoolwork because it eases the stress of being in the hospital, and offers a diversion from pain and boredom," says Bolles. "It also lessens their anxiety about going back to school — knowing they don't have to return to a mountain of homework.”

The school program also is helpful to patients' parents. "Their minds are overwhelmed with thoughts of treatment options, payment plans, and the welfare of their children," Bolles says. "When we can help their children with schoolwork, it gives parents one less thing to worry about.”

Bolles' team spends time one-on-one or in small groups with an average of approximately 40 to 60 patients each day. Last year they consulted with 5,927 school-age children on educational plans, tutored 440 children, set up homebound services upon discharge for 132 children, and conducted 68 school conferences. As a result of their hard work, five high-school seniors graduated.

"Thanks to the generosity of USA Funds, the additional teaching position and laptops have allowed us to serve many more students and families than ever before," says Dennis Judy, officer of corporate and foundation relations for the Riley Children's Foundation.