Joann Spera Educational Liaison Program
Our educational liaison program is named in memory of our beloved founding educational liaison, Joann Spera, who lost her own battle to cancer in 2020. Joann’s legacy lives on through the program she pioneered and the pediatric patients it serves every day.
Educational liaisons are our patient advocates that help make sure that their teachers, classmates, and school community understand how to best support them in their personal treatment journeys. They facilitate home instruction and support the patients’ parents as they navigate new and needed school services. In addition, our educational liaisons facilitate home instruction and make it possible for students to be assessed for Individual Education Plans (IEPs) in order to meet each student’s individual needs.
Even before the widespread usage of virtual classrooms pre and post Covid, our educational liaisons utilized VGo robots to allow patients absent from school for an extended period to attend classes remotely and feel as if they are in the classroom with their peers.
To help a facilitate a smooth transition back into school after treatment, our educational liaisons visit the child's classroom to assist in creating the most compassionate environment for the child's re-integration into school. During this visit, our specialists provide a presentation, based on age group, so that children can better understand their classmate's illness. The educational liaisons remain a resource to both the patient and the school.
If you would like to support the expansion of the Joann Spera Educational Liaison fund through our All About The Kids campaign, click here.
