Home schooling can keep children with medical issues on track

Thousands of children around the Tri-State are home-schooled for a variety of reasons. For children with serious medical issues, home schooling can be a good way to keep them on track. The Rumpings have everything they need to keep their children hitting the books at home. Mom Mei Ling Rumping said they're in their 11th year home schooling. Hannah Rumping has come a long way in the last 10 years, both academically and medically. When she was 2, Hannah was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. "We had no idea," Mei Ling Rumping said. "No history of cancer in the family anywhere, especially in children." Hannah was treated at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. She was given a bone marrow transplant and total body radiation and chemotherapy. She's now been cancer-free for 10 years. "I mean, she is downright miraculous," Rumping said. The family began homeschooling before Hannah became sick. They continued after because it worked for them. "School in the summer, if we needed to," Rumping said. "So, it just gave us a great amount of flexibility." There are about 2.3 million home-schooled children in the U.S., and some of them have long-term medical needs. "We are in a lot of different home-school groups, so we do run into them for not just kids like Hannah who are cancer survivors, but kids with other medical needs," Rumping said. In Ohio, parents have to meet certain requirements to home school each year. That includes 900 hours of instruction, superintendent notification and an assessment report. Today, Hannah is a regular 12-year-old. "I wake up and I see them get on the school bus and I'm still in my pajamas," she said. "And, I'm just like, 'I can eat a nice breakfast and then I can go do my work.' Good deal."