Thanks for the responses.

Most, if not all, of our community have kids with minor LD's. Lots on the autism spectrum/asperger's types. Some home school and some have a mix of homeschool and integration. As a community we have experience with may schools world wide, some with better support then others. State does a good job working with schools and the fear of a bad report card from the Department is a good motivator for many schools to work with parents. However sometimes that help is somewhat limited due to the lack of well trained special ed teachers. Most all of the parents in the community know what their child needs and, at times, are more well read then the experts when it comes to designing programs for their children. We just need a sharp teacher willing to learn with us to help impliment the programs at school.

My goal was to raise awareness among the international teaching community, especially young teachers who may be looking to get a year or 2 under their belts working with American families and limited numbers of students. I am sure that the idea that I put forward above will not fit everyone's career plans, however, there may be those in the community who would find the situation very satisfying and rewarding.

In the past parents have hired special ed teachers with Master's degress from such countires as Poland, Argentina, etc. I just figured I would throw out the idea to the community and see if any of you all had thoughts or ideas on the subject.

Hi Folks,

I work for the Department of State and have a special needs Child (Mild Asperger's). There is a fairly large community of families with special needs kids about 200 families registered in our usergroup . I am looking for some advice and recommendations. We are always looking for recommendations for international schools that have well developed special education programs and have experience intigrating special ed kids into the mainstream classroom. State provides some information but it is not always complete and each child has unique circumstances. What many schools promise sometimes does not pan out to truth on the ground. Westhill institute in Mexico is a perfect example. So here is my first question:

1) What schools do you all have experience with that have very good programs and experienced special ed staff?

the USG also gives us special education allowances to help augment our childrens' educational needs overseas. At times families have hired private special ed teachers to travel with them to various countries. Most of the time the teachers will live with the family and work directly with their child as a dedicated aide in the school or sometimes a mix of homeschool and school integration in scocial programs. These teaches ususally get domestic employee of a diplomat visas. The actual contract are between the family and the teacher. These teachers come from the US, Canada, Austrailia, and Europe, so really there are few limitiations if the teacher speaks english, it just about finding the right fit. Living with a family over seas is not always easy. It is all about personalities.

One of the ideas that we as a community are batting around is sharing some of the special ed allowance to hire a special ed teacher with great experience to work with 2-4 kids at a particular post/school. They would work to teach a particular school/teachers administrators on how to integrate the kids into the classroom and develop accomodation strategies etc.

Here come my next questions:

1) Is this something that the Int'l Teacher community would be interested in?

2) How would you recommend putting the 2 communities in contact with each other?

3) where do teachers with special ed backgrounds go to look for jobs?

I welcome your input. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks for your time!