How to prepare a school integration file?
The guardian prepares a complete file for school integration to be deposited at the control office in the regional administration of education, consisting mainly of:
- A request for school integration
- A medical certificate from a psychiatrist announcing a diagnosis of the disorder
- A mental disability ID card issued by the regional department of social affairs after being diagnosed by a psychiatrist
- An IQ test by a psychologist
- Certificate of residency or registration receipt at school
The guardian has the right, based on his financial situation, to choose free diagnosis and psychological commitment for the child or to resort to the private sector to ensure fast diagnosis and availability of appointments in public health institutions. However, resorting to the regional education administration remains necessary to deposit the medical file to the periodic committees.
How do school integration committees review these files?
After the file is deposited, a free interview with the school psychologist is scheduled automatically, since the Ministry of Education provides school psychologists within the regional administration of education in different cities with the aim of facilitating school integration for parents and educators and providing psychological briefing for the child, along with other tasks besides school integration.
After studying the file, the child and the guardian are interviewed to determine the goal of the inclusion process depending on the child’s condition, the extent of the development of his autism spectrum disorder, and to prepare them for the next phase when they turn 16 years. In this phase and with the help of the specialist and the guardian, the child can visualize his future project by discovering and developing his skills to choose the appropriate professions that go along with his psychological, mental, and cognitive state.
The decision to approve or reject school integration requests is made collectively through the intervention of multidisciplinary groups within special committees for school integration. However, the initial interview with the school psychologist offers an initial overview of the possible decision related to the child’s school integration and the purpose of the integration itself: whether school and social integration or social integration only.
What does the committee’s decision mean?
School integration committees are held periodically at the headquarters of the regional department of social affairs, with the involvement of multidisciplinary parties, to decide:
Approval
This means either: full integration into the educational institution or partial integration into the educational institution with the possibility of enrolling the child in associations under the jurisdiction of the regional department of social affairs, which are dedicated to children with special needs and children with intellectual disabilities.
A child who acquired full or partial integration enjoys pedagogical assistance to facilitate the process of his integration in school and learning mechanisms appropriate to the child’s condition and try to provide good conditions for learning and then assess his gains according to it.
Refusal or postponement
The child retains the right to re-attempt applying for school integration in the first year of primary school until he reaches the age of 9 years in case his psychological condition worsens.
The integration committees study the files and requests individually and the opinion of the various parties participating in the committee and who have completed the necessary interviews for the child. The decision to refuse, postpone or approve shall be based on the psychological, behavioral, and cognitive state of the child.
In case the required conditions for school integration are not met, the child can be enrolled in associations or specialized education centers that are available regionally and which can be of public, private, or semi-public nature.
The aim of this mechanism continues to be to ensure the benefit of the child because in some cases the school does not represent the appropriate place to help the child in gaining independence. In addition, the possibility of social integration of the child becomes impossible sometimes due to the presence of other disorders or social difficulties.
As for children who do not enjoy school integration, their vocational training takes place in registered associations and centers until the age of 16, in order to obtain certificates in those centers in the various trainings obtained during the period they spent in those centers.
