Every year when Jingkids publishes our annual School Choice Guide, there’s one question that parents invariably ask: Which school is the “best”? We’ve never been able to answer that, and frankly, we never will be. Because every child is different, and their needs are different, so the “best” school is the school that’s able to provide that specific child with everything he or she needs.
Parents should also take into consideration the school’s founding philosophy, curriculum, extracurricular activities, location, tuition fees, and tons more. But when you’re searching for a school for a child with special needs, you’ve got far more things to look into.
There are hundreds of international schools in Beijing offering a variety of curriculums, staffed with exceptional teachers, and providing unparalleled extracurricular activities. But when it comes to children with neurodivergent tendencies, the choices for schools suddenly shrinks a little. Not every international school in Beijing is able to accept students with special needs. The ones that do, however, have created programs that go above and beyond what is required, and are able to provide their students with an environment where they can thrive.
For instance, Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) is a fully inclusive school which means they provide educational opportunities for all students. What’s more, WAB doesn’t use the term “special education”. Instead, they prefer “inclusive education”, and define it as “all students, regardless of disability, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation or faith, can access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar-aged peers, supported by reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies.”
Over the years WAB has enrolled students with physical challenges such as visual impairment, learning disorders, speech and language impairment, autistic spectrum disorder, and emotional disorders including anxiety and depression. It certainly requires an extra level of attention, resources, and planning, but WAB works closely with families to accommodate each student’s learning differences and creates a community where every child can feel safe and supported.
And WAB isn’t alone in this. International School of Beijing (ISB) is also renowned for its special needs program, a defining principle of its founding ethos. ISB enrolls students with diverse learning needs (mild, moderate, and intensive). Learning support provides targeted and specific intervention for students who qualify, while evidence-based interventions match student needs and support the learning of, and access to, grade-level content.
“ISB recognizes and respects the unique developmental and cultural diversity of our student body”, says ISB’s Director of Student Support Services, Danette Sack. “Our partnership with parents and classroom teachers guides students through the developmental learning stages at each grade level, towards their unique social-emotional, linguistic, academic, and physical potential.”
According to Sack, ever since ISB was established some years ago, it’s prided itself on being a school for the whole family. Part and parcel of that is emphasizing special needs education because it’s something that expat families in Beijing have a genuine need for.
Historically, international schools have been exclusive. If a family with multiple children moved to a school and one of their children had special needs, the school would often accept the children without disabilities and declare their inability to meet the needs of the student with disabilities. ISB developed its inclusive programs in order to meeet the needs of all children from their international families. ISB currently has staff certified in all areas of special needs including qualified and experienced learning support teachers, EAL teachers, instructional assistants, a school psychologist, language pathologists, counselors, and a private occupational therapist who’s available to students on campus during the day.
What really makes ISB special, however, is that they’ve cultivated a student body that embraces difference. The specialized team creates individualized programs for students who require intensive support. For Sack, participation is the most important thing when it comes to special education and it’s important that these kids have equal access to everything at school.
WAB and ISB are far from the only two schools in Beijing that go above and beyond to ensure children with special needs receive the best education they can. To find out more about international schools offering special needs programs, scan the QR code to visit the school profile index on our website (www.beijing-kids.com).
This article appeared in the jingkids 2021 September-October issue
