As your child gets older, engaging with school will begin to evolve as your child, you, and/or the school may start to expect more communication directly to students and not as much through parents.  

Parents and caregivers still play an important role but it is also an opportunity to help your child begin to develop more skills in communicating and advocating for themselves.  

To find great basics on engaging with your school, visit our First Steps section. 

 As your child goes through middle school and starts high school, there are some additional things to consider when engaging with the school.  

• Talk with your child before the start of each school year to check in on what roles each of you will take in conversations or communications with the school and exactly what needs to be communicated to new teachers, coaches, and other students. 
• Encourage your child to take a larger role each year as time goes on but also be open to their feelings about not wanting to talk a lot about their blood or bleeding disorder. Process this with them to better understand why, and how to come up with solutions that ensure your child will be safe and the school will be prepared.  
• Practice those conversations in advance with your child or have them draft the emails they might send to teachers and share with you first for feedback. 
• It might not make sense for your child to always be the main communicator, but it can be important to share with them what happened during any meetings or after any written communications they aren’t part of to ask for their input on any next steps. 
• Be patient! Kids, tweens and teens go through various developmental phases during this time, so your once outgoing kid may now be quieter but six months later it may all change again. Support them where they are at, while also keeping an eye on furthering their independence long term.