GSurprising as it may sound, special education isn’t exclusively designed for a child with a specific medical

diagnosis. Major life changes, like uproot-ing to another country or changing schools, may be reason enough to seek assistance. “Recent research is showing that 20 percent of children without diagnoses need some type of special support at some point in their academic career,” explains John Giszczak, general manager of Eliot’s Corner, a center for pediatric therapy.

That’s good news for Beijing parents concerned about access to special educa-tion. “Teachers with international education experience are coming to Beijing with the expectation that this is how schools should be,” says Giszczak. Inclusiveness is a philoso-phy that encourages the practice of educat-ing disabled children with their peers. The practice fosters acceptance among differently abled groups, and stops the educational iso-lation that has hindered disabled children in the past.

Stephen Zissermann, elementary school counselor at Beijing International Bilingual Academy (BIBA) in Shunyi echoes this change, “We have a lot of ethically minded faculty, and some very passionate advocates, who understand that if we didn’t take some of these kids, then maybe no one

would, and we simply believe all kids need to be supported.” BIBA currently has three chil-dren with physical disabilities from Little Flower Orphanage on full scholarships.

Growing Chinese awareness International educators are not the only ones concerned with advancing educational opportunities for chil-d r e n w i t h s p e c i a l ne e d s . W it h g row-ing public awareness about autism among Chinese children, do-mestic organizations have sprung up to offer services that will meet this growing demand.

Yvon ne Wa n g , a local mother, was enthusiastic about find-ing special education resources when her son Qi Tianyi, age 5, was diagnosed with autism. She received parent training from Stars and Rain, took several trips to the U.S. for research and investigated the many spe-cial education organizations all over China. “I believe that helping my child requires a long-term commitment; I don’t see dedica-tion to the long-term from these [domestic] organizations. I think they just want to make

money.” Her solution to these frustrations was starting her own inclusive kindergarten.

As Chinese and international parents alike begin to expect inclusiveness, schools will be met with two primary challenges. Spe-cial Education Network in Asia (SENIA) board member Noel Erik Simon, a speech-language

pathologist with Global Speech Services in Bei-jing, elaborates: “[First schools need to be] able to recognize [and] identify what the needs are within their student popula-tions and [secondly to] adequately staff schools to meet those needs.” Simon is also concerned that “while more and more schools are becom-

ing inclusive either through philosophical or economic demands, most international schools seem to shy away from being labeled as ‘that school’: the special education school.”

To gauge the inclusiveness of potential schools, consider the following points:

Do they embrace inclusiveness?Ask administrators about the school’s specif-ic policy on inclusiveness. Request to speak with anyone who will teach or support your

EDUCATION

Inclusive EducationWhat does this mean for children with special needs?

Even when schools aren’t able to hire their own full-time support staff, Beijing has several clinics, organizations and private providers that can assist schools

Photo courtesy of Beijing International

Bilingual Academy

Beijing Parents & Kids | 47

child; the homeroom teacher; the guidance counselor; all special subject teachers and extracurricular activity leaders.

Special Education Network in Beijing (SENIB) chair member Dr. Reed Rhodes, the elementary school learning support teacher with Beijing City International School (BCIS), says that all teachers need to share in this vision. “All teachers [at BCIS] actively differ-entiate instruction according to a student’s individual needs [along with learning sup-port staff].” Zissermann elaborates on BIBA’s inclusiveness: “[BIBA] follows a response-to-intervention model, where the dean of stu-dents and I offer that next layer of classroom assistance in the form of a student support team, but the focus is to teach all children in their homerooms all of the time.”

Will they meet my child’s needs?Ask about all in-school contract services the school provides for special-needs learning support and physical accommodation. “To be fully inclusive, there needs to be a com-mitment to providing the resources needed by the students,” Andi O’Hearn, director of communications at BCIS explains. “I would expect that [schools] would hire specialists educated and skilled to work with the stu-dents such as counselors, learning support specialists, whether occupational, physical or speech therapists, depending on the needs of the children [schools] are serving.”

Even when schools aren’t able to hire their own full-time support staff, Beijing has several clinics, organizations and private providers that can assist schools in providing learning support. SENIB, the Beijing chap-ter of SENIA, has a list of external providers listed on their website, www.senib.org.

Know assessment test criteriaAsk which assessment tests the school ad-ministers and why. Also inquire about the qualifications of the teacher or counselor in charge of administering these tests.

“The issue with assessments is that most of the common ones are standardized on native English-speaking populations,” ex-plains Simon. “A school with a good support services department will be able to work as a team to distinguish whether the issues a student is facing are due to language acqui-sition or learning needs, or both. A common assessment that an educational psychologist will administer is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). However, it’s good to understand that there are a variety of as-sessment tools available. The specific tool is not as important as making sure that it is administered by a qualified professional who has the training to interpret the results. A responsible school will also be able to iden-tify if a student’s needs are beyond what they

are able to provide for and not just mask or ignore issues in order to collect tuition.”

Individual education plansExpect a parent-teacher meeting to review and discuss an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Remember that the IEP is nego-tiable and should serve your child in his or her weaknesses and strengths.

Dr. Reed says, “The most important parts of any IEP are a delineation of a stu-dent’s strengths and needs, learning targets with strategies and resources, how outcomes will be measured and who is responsible for the implementation. As with any plan, it needs to be reviewed periodically.”

Simon echoes this: “When an IEP is created, a professional school will want to meet with the parents to go through and explain it to them. Parents should look for measurable goals, the date that the IEP will be revised, the frequency in which their child will receive services, the setting (small group or individual) and who will be providing services. I think that it is reason-able for the parents to want to ensure that the teachers providing services are quali-fied special education teachers with mas-ter’s degrees or a related specialist field. Also, what is the philosophical approach of the school? Is the school student-centered or more program-centered?”

Parental educationZissermann points out that his job as the BIBA counselor includes periodic informa-tional sessions for parents. “I’m planning a parent workshop where we discuss a few key values ... inclusion tops the list. From this, I will gauge parents’ understanding of special education, and build from there. For the fac-ulty, I have planned training on autism spec-trum disorder, tics and Tourette’s, and inclu-sion generally. I’ve trained a few individual teachers and parents as needed.”

Red flags to watch forLook out for overambitious or understaffed schools. “One [red flag] would be if a family with two children applies to a school and only one of their children is admitted and the other is told no [because of learning needs]. A school that wants to split up a family is not very community-minded,” says Simon, “and isn’t looking at how best to serve the entire family. I would say that a school or organization that doesn’t ask a lot of fam-ily and medical history questions might not be experienced enough to meet the needs of your child. Does the school have an interven-tion program? How integrated are the differ-ent professions in the school? Will there be a team who will individualize the support or is it just one person? Does the school involve the parent and family as integral members of

the support plan for their child?”“No matter how good a school or or-

ganization is,” adds Simon, “progress will be limited without the parents taking an active role in their child’s education. This should be continually communicated to the parents by the school and be an expecta-tion of the school.”

Specialist credentials“Parents should expect that, if a school or clinic has specialist teachers, they are actu-ally qualified and experienced in special edu-cation, speech-language pathology, educa-tional psychology, literacy intervention and English as an additional language,” explains Simon.

“Special education organizations are largely unregulated in China, so parents should stay informed and vigilant in making sure organizations have the proper creden-tials they need to provide adequate service.”

Also check to see if special education professionals are continually updating their expertise. Stars and Rain sets this example through its partnership with Harpers Green, a school in the U.S. with over 85 years of special education support. “We partner with them in order to provide comprehensive sup-port for autistic children,” says Scott Sun of Stars and Rain. “We have a volunteer exchange so our teachers and their teachers can gain valuable experience.” SENIB also provides workshops at its meetings and con-ferences to help support professionals and schools when setting best practices.

Seeds of changeEven if all schools in Beijing became fully inclusive overnight, Zissermann points out a huge hitch. “Despite what we as faculty think of inclusion, it’s hard to gauge how the par-ent body will react in private or public. [T]his social aspect can scare parents into denial or silence.” Zissermann and other BIBA faculty hope to “educate parents that acknowledging their child’s special needs is actually a good thing.” His comments point to a key way in which parents can support this global move-ment toward supporting children who have naturally different learning styles and needs. Parents can contact their school’s board to vocalize support for inclusiveness. Support for this change can also be done through vol-unteer work or even just clicking a few social sharing buttons to increase awareness about inclusiveness and special needs in Beijing.

Vanessa Jencksthinks no child should

be left behind

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48 | December 11 - January 6