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When 12-year-old Abigail was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, she and her family had to deal with not just serious health implications but long periods out of school, missing out on learning and being with friends.

"Just laying in your bed and watching TV is not always great," said her mother, Elizabeth Martin. "You need to get up and get that body moving and get your brain moving."

Abigail and other patients undergoing long-term treatment at Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, can ease the boredom and inactivity in a special school room built by the hospital. It is modeled after an effort at another Providence St. Joseph Health location, Sacred Heart Children's Hospital in Spokane, Washington. The educational liaison there, Anna E. Christensen, said the hospital realized that medical attention is not the only need for children undergoing long-term treatment and care.

"They're here in the hospital," she said. "They can't attend school due to chemo, and they're having huge gaps in their education. So that's why this program was designed."

In Lubbock, where Kaitlyn Bigham joined the staff in spring as a teacher, the job soon became a calling.

"They've got so many patients that are falling behind in school because of the oncology treatment and dialysis treatment," she said, "and they were looking for someone that could help keep them on track as best as possible while they're going through that treatment. I was just floored. That's the kind of work that I've always wanted to do, just helping kids and giving back to families. I told them that they would have to fire me to get rid of me. This job is God's work."

A room of their own
The newly refurbished room on the third floor of the Lubbock hospital is designed to provide long-term patients with educational support and enrichment, including tutoring. Dr. Amy Thompson, Covenant Children's CEO, said the program grew from concerns that chronic patients too often were having academic problems because of their lengthy absences from school.

"They were either failing a grade, which is not good for them because that takes them out of their peer group," Thompson said, "or they were not failing a grade but just going on to be unprepared for the next grade above them."

She knew that Sacred Heart in Spokane had experience in helping such patients stay on track academically, so she went on a tour there. "We walked in," she recalled, "and I was like, this is the problem that we're trying to solve — how do we keep these kids on grade level?"

A big part of the answer, Thompson said, was to raise more than $2 million for operational support and renovation of a space on the hospital's pediatric floor that became a classroom, complete with a library and science and technology equipment for students to exercise their minds rather than surrender to the boredom that extended medical treatment can bring.

"I know every kid in the world dreams of being able to stay home and play as much Xbox as you ever wanted to play," she said, "but our chronic kids are like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so sick of playing games and watching movies.'"

Thompson added that the kids like the educational support because they don't fall behind classmates and because of the socialization they get with their teacher.

Isolation, discouragement
In Spokane, Colleen Fox, who is chief philanthropy officer for Providence in the Inland Northwest, called the educational effort the passion project of a pediatric oncology social worker, who tracked patients and their families even after their medical treatment was finished.

Fox noted the feelings of isolation and discouragement can be hard-to-treat side effects of long-term hospitalization.

"A lot of kids said, 'Well, I beat cancer, but I'm failing at life' because they had these long gaps in education and they were dealing with the side effects of their chemo and their treatment," Fox said.

She said the $250,000 annual cost to support the education program comes from local business donors as well as the nonprofit  Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Sacred Heart has a teacher and a teaching assistant, as well as volunteers who will help kids with coursework as needed.

Close cooperation with area schools is a key to the program's success, Fox said.

"We do that rather than start our own separate school, because every child that comes to our hospital has a unique situation and a unique treatment time," she said. "They really wanted to be able to individualize the educational program for different kids at different stages. They'll work with the school counselors and the teachers to give accurate assessments of sort of what's been completed, where kids are at academically."

Fox said the hospital keeps track of the patients involved in the program, to see if the additional help has improved their academic progress. So far, results have been promising.

"I know of at least four students in high school who were getting so far behind that there was just no way they were going to be able to complete traditional high school on time," she said. "They were able to get their GED while they were in school, so that when they are through treatment, they still are able to have that accomplishment and be able to kind of move forward with their lives."

Abigail's future
In Lubbock, Abigail is in the last stage of her treatment, with a projected end date for chemotherapy of July 10, 2025. Her mother said the special emphasis on keeping up with her schoolwork has played a key role in her recovery.

"Right now, she is testing negative for leukemia," Martin said. "So everything that we're doing is to prevent the leukemia from coming back.

"She's on what's called modified homebound, enrolled in a middle school where she goes as her body is able. It's kind of fluid. Based on her needs, if she's able to go to school, then that's where we have her. If she's having a lot of pain that day or she's sick, we have her at the house with a homebound teacher provided by our district. She's a seventh grader and she is academically on track, so that's a huge blessing."

Martin added that what the hospital education effort does goes beyond book learning.

She said her daughter has been helping other kids who have the same diagnosis by "talking through it with them and let them know that it is scary in the beginning, but that they can do it and there's people there that will help them.

"She's had to grow up a lot," Martin said of Abigail. "But she also has seen the benefit of what people have poured into her and she wants to pour into others, so I'm grateful for that."

In the Covenant Children's classroom and beyond, Martin said her daughter has been surrounded by a nurturing environment.

"I am so grateful for Covenant and her care team," Martin said, "from the child life specialists to the schools, to the doctors, to the nurses. Even the custodial and cafeteria staff come in and check on her. It is definitely a place where healing happens for the whole child, not just the physical but the emotional, the spiritual, the mind, the body — all of it. They do wraparound care, and that classroom is a huge part of that."