The kids in Christine Gappa’s kindergarten class sat cross-legged on the rug, enraptured by a reading of the day’s story-time selection, “Mrs. Wishy Washy” and shouting along farm animal onomatopoeia.

Foot fusion surgery is an operation that fuses one or more joints in the foot into a fixed position. This eliminates joint motion that may cause pain for people with certain conditions, such as ...