The LACKING in the system of education here, for special needs students, hello, hello, hello??? Whatever happened to, EVERYBODY gets equal opportunity to be educated??? Oh wait, that still, does NOT exist!!! Off of the Front Page Section, translated…
Last Year, the Fourteen Cases of Home-Schooling All Got Tossed Back, This Year, Eleven are Being Evaluated, with the Rates of Approval, Very Low, the Children with Severe Handicaps Can’t Get to School, Forced to Stop Learning, the Parents are, Worried
The Department of Education’s “Homeschooling Policy” is Applicable to the Students Entering into High School with Handicaps. Last Year, there Were a Total of Fourteen Students Who’d Sent in the Applications for This, But, None Was Granted, Most of Them Wanted to Go to School First, or to Get Treated; This Year, there are So Far, Eleven Applicants, Currently Under Evaluation Right Now; the Special Education Professionals Estimated that there would be a Low Rate of Approval Again This Year, the Parents Questioned Too, If Homeschooling Wasn’t Approved for the Special Needs Students, then Why Was there This Rule in Education Set Up in the First Place?
The National Education Unit of the Department of Education stated, that as the applicants were, evaluated, if they’re able to go to school to attend the classroom sessions, then, the students should be encouraged to do so, to not miss the chances of learning; and if the students are being treated medically, or in a home, then, the Department of Education suggested that they all get their health better first.
Toward the fourteen students whose applications were, tossed, the Unit of National Education stated, that the Department of Education believed, and suggested, that all seven of these students can receive a better special education in the schools including providing them with the utilities, the equipment available to them; they’d also, suggested that the priorities for these students should be get their health statuses better. As the students improved in health, and after the assessments of education and needs in their learning, then, how they should be educated will then be, decided upon.
As the special needs students graduated out of middle school, if the special education evaluation committee of the Department of Education passed the evaluations, then, the teachers are assigned to the students to teach them at home. The middle school girl, Tseng in Chiayi with the severe case of cerebral palsy had entered into the special eds school in Chiayi, but, the car ride was over an hour, the families can only apply for the homeschooling, and because she wasn’t homeschool in her middle school years, she’d not passed this first round of evaluation.
Tseng had studied for FIVE whole years in the middle school setting, the County Education department could NO longer extend the time of her studies, and the parents can only, drop her out. Mrs. Tseng told, that she’d hoped, that she’d wanted her daughter to get placed in the occupational therapy programs once she’s in high school, and now, the slope, the school had, had been, put to a halt, she didn’t know what to do.
The male student from Minghsiung Middle School has a serious case of cataracts, and mental retardation, he has two younger siblings, his father is physically handicapped, and had a stroke, the family’s household income relied solely off of the mother’s working odds and ends. He lives in the alleys of a slope, the school had, sent the mid-sized bus to pick him up close to his home.
His homeroom instructor told, that his parents didn’t want him to continue his education, and besides, if he were to enter into a higher education special education school, because of the huge number of students, the bus would be a larger one, couldn’t get all the way into the alley where he lives, and Chang would have to walk over ten minutes to the bus pick up point, which would be, quite dangerous for him.
The male student, wang in Guantien District of Tainan had multiple disabilities, he’d studied in the collective special education classes in his elementary years, in middle school, he’d become bedridden long term, frequented the hospitals, he was approved for homeschooling, he’d learned to use the iPad, and the read-aloud programs for the books. As he graduated from middle school last year, his mother continued to file the applications for him to be homeschooled, but the evaluation board tossed it back, believed, that homeschool is only applicable, for those with the seriously ill students who are bedridden, and needed around-the-clock care.
Wang’s mother sighed, on how her son can have homeschool provided for him in his middle school years, but NOT through the high school? She’d, not sent in the applications again this year, “it wasn’t approved, there’s, nothing more to say”.
The County Government: Stop Saying No to the Children
Two cases of homeschool special needs applicants from Chiayi were denied, and, there’s, one more special needs student who’s evaluation is pending, the head of the local department of education, Chen said, he hoped that the central government, can loosen up on the rules, to take each case separately, to consider the matter from the child’s right to get an education, to NOT deny them. Chen said, if the Department of National Education worried that there’s not enough hours of classroom sessions for those homeschooled, they can make it up by setting up the interactive sessions via the internet courses too.
And so, this is how this group of special eds kids get, tossed away, and, you can forget about how everybody CAN get an education, because not everybody can, only those who don’t have these handicaps, no M.R.s (mental retardation), developmentally slow, or those with some other conditions, CAN, and that, is how the government swept, this group of special needs students, under the big old rug called, BUREAUCRACY!!! And there’s NOTHING we can do about it either.