ClassAct: Education program celebrates 35 years of serving hospitalized children

By Casandra Andrews
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This story was originally featured in the Spring 2025 edition of the USA Health magazine.

On a recent winter morning, a patient wearing pajamas stood at the door of ClassAct at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital, eager to start the school day. The child was scheduled for surgery later in the afternoon but wanted to make sure her schoolwork was finished first.

Teachers at ClassAct, a school embedded in the hospital, say it’s not unusual for patients to show up early for class, excited to tackle everything from math worksheets to reading assignments.

After all, it’s hard to underestimate the normalcy that classroom work brings to what can be a stressful experience. For hospitalized children and teenagers, the familiar routine of attending school can offer refuge from the pain of needles, the fear of swallowing pills, and the lost autonomy that comes from enduring numerous procedures they have no control over.

In fact, aside from education, one of the main goals of ClassAct – which is marking 35 years of serving students – is to give children a sense of control over some part of their lives, which in turn offers them a way to better cope with illness and injury.

It’s the only such hospital school in the region where a staff of six certified public-school teachers serves the educational needs of up to 1,200 students each year.

“We focus on the whole child, which includes any physical issues, but also their educational and psychological needs, which are addressed daily by a multidisciplinary team that includes a highly skilled academic medical staff and certified teachers, child life therapists, counselors and social workers, among others,” said Debbie Browning, MSN, RN, chief executive officer at Children’s & Women’s Hospital. “Having ClassAct here helps our patients thrive and ensures they don’t fall behind just because they can’t attend their regular school.”

How it started

More than three decades ago in the late 1980s, a determined young teacher – Anne Vella – and several like-minded volunteers with the group Helping Hands for Children implored the local school board to make sure children hospitalized at Children’s & Women’s Hospital had access to learning opportunities when they were unable to attend their regular schools.

They backed up their request by presenting national research that clearly demonstrated better outcomes for sick and injured children whose hospital stays included an educational component.

Nearly 35 years later, Vella has watched the program grow from one small room with a single teacher – her – to a nationally recognized program that includes five teachers, an administrator and continuous support from a talented team of child life specialists and recreational therapists within the Mapp Child & Family Life Program at the hospital.

“It is just the best teaching job in the world,” said Vella, who has earned two doctoral degrees, one in education and another in community counseling, during her career. “Each day you have a chance to make a difference in a child’s life. But more importantly, each child makes a difference in my life. I walk out of here every day not deflated, but invigorated, because I have been with a group of precious angels who are hard workers and eager to learn.”

The ClassAct program, which is a combination of the words “class work” and “activities,” is a partnership between the hospital and the Mobile County Public School System, Alabama’s largest with more than 90 campuses and 50,000 students.

How it works

Teachers provide daily instruction for hospitalized students in grades K-12. Instruction is offered in the ClassAct classrooms for patients who are allowed to leave their rooms. Educators also visit individual patients at their bedside as needed.

The team of teachers and other child life staff meet each weekday morning before school to go over the patient census and the status of every hospitalized child who can receive instruction. This is also when any other needs are discussed, and plans created or reviewed to support the child and his or her family.

Services are not limited to public school students. Children who attend private and parochial schools can also receive instruction. “We contact all schools to get lesson plans,” Vella said.

Prizes for bravery

To help make learning more fun, the program also includes a reward system known as Champion Chain, which allows students to collect paper chain links for completing schoolwork and showing bravery for enduring IV sticks and other procedures.

When enough chain links are collected, the student can pick out a new toy or game from a large selection of donated items from generous community partners and national sponsors. Many of the patients proudly display their colorful paper chains like badges of honor, draping them from IV poles.

And just like at other schools, parties and celebrations are also incorporated into the curriculum. During Mardi Gras, the students join a parading society and roll through the hallways in wheelchairs and wagons as jazz music blares from a mobile speaker. On Halloween, patients and their siblings receive new costumes and take part in arts and crafts activities related to the holiday. Before Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, teachers help students create cards and other mementos for their parents.

Kristin Roberts Mostellar, a special education teacher with 29 years of experience (15 of those at the hospital), said parents are sometimes surprised to learn the hospital has teachers on staff who have experience working with children with disabilities and long-term illnesses.

“We want our students to understand they are valuable members of society who have not been forgotten because of an illness or condition,” Roberts Mostellar said. “Many times, children can develop a stronger sense of self-worth when they have a teacher who cares about them. My goal, personally, is to make sure that parents and caregivers know their child is important, valuable and seen.”