I am going through exactly what you are explaining! I teach Pre-K. 2 sessions a day and this year I have 19 in the a.m. class and 20 in the p.m. class! My cognitive skills are terrible and my speech is also very embarassing and frustrating! My doctor suggested it would be better if I quit work. There would be less stress on my body. I received the paper work from TRS, our teacher retirement system but now my brain is too tired to figure out WHAT to do. I hope to teach one more year but I don't know yet!! I was adviced to check on "forced medical retirement" but all I found when I "goggled" it was about military disability. But I know my body is not the same, it is tired and time for me to take care of myself. Which is difficult, I am the one that tries to take care of my school kids, mu family and friends! But you will know if it is time but you sound like me............so check your options and it will help you decide. My doctor told me that more MS patient have to quit work due to cognitive and speech issues before they have physical disabilities.

I think you should look at your absenteeism, tardiness, jobs lost and gained over a certain period of time. I think you should decide that part...and how much you love your job..? Make a list of pros and cons.
Hope that helps?

I too am curious of how to find out about filing and what to do and when. I love working. I love my job but I am not as good as I once was. I don't want to go out of the workforce on a bad note. I was advised to take time off or work part time. But reality has set in and of course I can't not work. So I work part time but it can be a struggle financially. I just don't know what to do! I have two small children. I am to young to have to worry about how to survive. I graduated college just in time to get sick!!! So aggravated!! Now I have to pay for school and put food in my kids belly's and clothes on there back.

Let's pass a law to tattoo names on foreheads!

Claudia, you sound just like me right now. I teach K-4 ESL and Spanish and the kids wear me out. I'm so tired when I go home that if I lie down for a minute to rest, I never get back up! I love my job and my kids, but the speech and cognative issues are getting to me, too. I can look in the face of a student I've had for four years and draw a complete blank on his name. And it's hard to teach languages when your own speech is sometimes garbled or you can't think of even the easiest words for things. Embarrassing and frustrating, but my kids have been great about it. I'm trying to get disability now, with the option to teach part time. Things would be so much better for me if I only had a couple of hours of my ESLs (smaller classes than the Spanish). Let me know how it goes for you.