My husband and I are embarking on the journey to teach internationally. We are still newbies in teaching with him having 4-5 years at the secondary and college level and I'll be completing my second year at the middle school level. Our current school district is restructuring and as a result both the schools that we work at will be closed so we're using this opportunity to explore all options.
We've been applying to schools directly and joined ISS this month and we plan on attending the fair in Atlanta. The concern is that our son has special needs and would require a curriculum different than what the schools offer as a result of his disability which is characterized as global developmental delay, at the moment.
We've had a few really good hits who've mentioned that we are a great fit for the school but unfortunately they don't believe that the city/country would have the needed provisions for our son. As we've received interviews I have researched the cities to see what provisions are available. I also make mention of my son in my cover letters and on my ISS profile. My husband kind of disagrees with this practice.
Do you all think it is a smart move to mention my son's special needs from the outset? What school or country outside of Europe would provide the best provisions for children with cognitive deficits?
Our areas are Chemistry and Special Education/Middle Grades 4-8 certifications hence my confidence in my ability to offer assistance in educating our little guy even if the city/country does not seem up to par.
Special Needs Options
Response
What is your sons degree of impairment?
In the best cases ISs do not provide any more than mild needs, and those are at large elite tier ISs. If your son has a greater degree of impairment than I wholly concur with your spouse in removing mention of your child from your application materials. The reason being that you will need to seek education for him from the municipal system, which will likely restrict you to regions in the UK/AUS, WE, and NE. In Asia you would be limited to vacancies in SG and to a lessor degree HK. These are regions that offer local/municipal programs in English as the language of instruction and have programs for SEN/LS/LD.
The forum has a major contributor who has a similar scenario to yours, who will very likely respond to your letter soon and would defer too their response.
In the best cases ISs do not provide any more than mild needs, and those are at large elite tier ISs. If your son has a greater degree of impairment than I wholly concur with your spouse in removing mention of your child from your application materials. The reason being that you will need to seek education for him from the municipal system, which will likely restrict you to regions in the UK/AUS, WE, and NE. In Asia you would be limited to vacancies in SG and to a lessor degree HK. These are regions that offer local/municipal programs in English as the language of instruction and have programs for SEN/LS/LD.
The forum has a major contributor who has a similar scenario to yours, who will very likely respond to your letter soon and would defer too their response.
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crypticvenus
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- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:26 pm
Re: Special Needs Options
His needs are more on the severe side in terms of support needed. He would not be able to be mainstreamed all day and would require an assistant as his adaptive skills are well below his age group. Currently he is in a resource or self-contained classroom. I am aware that any school that we were to get offered a position would not be able to accommodate him unless a specialty school.
Reply
@crypticvenus
Even an elite tier IS is going to have serious issues accommodating your sons needs, and will likely require significant expense to do so or drastically under serve him. I see three potential options:
1) As addressed above, you focus your search efforts in regions that the municipal education system can serve his LD/LS/SEN/SPED needs with appropriate programs and uses English as the language of instruction.
2) You present yourselves as a single IT with a trailing spouse and dependent. Your spouses areas are chemistry which is a high needs area, especially if your spouse can and does add maths and additional science (physics and biology, but at least physics). You would in this scenario essentially be homeschooling your child.
3) Consider applying for DoDDS, however DoDDS appointments are extremely competitive.
Even an elite tier IS is going to have serious issues accommodating your sons needs, and will likely require significant expense to do so or drastically under serve him. I see three potential options:
1) As addressed above, you focus your search efforts in regions that the municipal education system can serve his LD/LS/SEN/SPED needs with appropriate programs and uses English as the language of instruction.
2) You present yourselves as a single IT with a trailing spouse and dependent. Your spouses areas are chemistry which is a high needs area, especially if your spouse can and does add maths and additional science (physics and biology, but at least physics). You would in this scenario essentially be homeschooling your child.
3) Consider applying for DoDDS, however DoDDS appointments are extremely competitive.
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wrldtrvlr123
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- Location: Japan
Re: Special Needs Options
Hi. Welcome. We were/are in a similar situation. Our son has Autism in the Moderate functioning range which basically meant that he needed a self-contained class and/or support in a gen. ed. class with some type of resource room situation for reading/math. I am also a SPED teacher. We have managed to have interesting and rewarding lives overseas but it certainly has not been easy and it has restricted the locations/schools that were open to us.
Our first foray into int'l teaching was a small job fair where we found a small int'l school in Egypt that was willing to have our son in a second grade class with me offering support as the SPED Coordinator for the school. We assumed that this meant having careers as int'l teachers, even with our son would be fairly easy. This situation worked pretty well until his teacher (who loved him and was great with him( left and the new teacher was unable/unwilling to make it work. We ended up leaving after one year instead of the two or three we originally planned.
Since then, we have found several locations with small int'l special needs schools where I ended up teaching and where my son was offered specialized education as part of my package. This worked well and allowed my wife to be hired at nearby larger int'l schools. Unfortunately, these small niche schools have a bad habit of closing which has forced us to choose between setting up some type of home program with our son with local help (totally doable in many places in Asia) and moving on.
The names/numbers of these types school change fairly often and right now, Shanghai and Hong Kong are the only places that I know for certain have special education schools for English speakers. I found many of these school just by searching special education and international schools (sometimes adding a +whatever city I was interested in).
There are a few regular international schools that have actual SPED programs (as opposed to learning support for students that are mainstreamed for everything/virtually everything). These would include ISBrussells, Int'l School of Geneva and Zurich Int'l School. ESF in HK also run 20+ schools and have a freestanding special needs school and would be a great option for you.
There are a few others and I will see if I still have that information somewhere. Next Frontier might also have some updated information (http://www.nextfrontierinclusion.org/). Don't get too excited by the member schools as they generally are talking about ways to promote more comprehensive SPED/inclusion services but most have not much to actually provide such services. I did see that they are looking to hire someone for a Beijing location.
Early on, a very nice admin type told us we should look into DoDDS as an option since they have to offer SPED services which would be much more comprehensive then most/all int'l schools would offer. We eventually were able to get in with DoDDS and it definitely has been a better situation for the whole family.
We did not include our son's disability in our letter of intro. This led to us getting many interviews but also much disappointment as you watch the interviewer mentally check out as soon as you get to the tell us about your son part of the interview. We had one memorable interview at a job fair where the question was asked 5 minutes in the interviewer stopped the interview right there. Possibly understandable on one level but quite hurtful on many others. I don't know the right answer for you. Eventually we learned to only apply to schools where there was an option at the school, in the city or a viable option to set up our own program due to the location.
I am writing this quickly before work so will post back later if I think of something to add. Also, you should be able to see an email address on my profile if you want to write. It can be done but there are definitely challenges to make it happen.
Our first foray into int'l teaching was a small job fair where we found a small int'l school in Egypt that was willing to have our son in a second grade class with me offering support as the SPED Coordinator for the school. We assumed that this meant having careers as int'l teachers, even with our son would be fairly easy. This situation worked pretty well until his teacher (who loved him and was great with him( left and the new teacher was unable/unwilling to make it work. We ended up leaving after one year instead of the two or three we originally planned.
Since then, we have found several locations with small int'l special needs schools where I ended up teaching and where my son was offered specialized education as part of my package. This worked well and allowed my wife to be hired at nearby larger int'l schools. Unfortunately, these small niche schools have a bad habit of closing which has forced us to choose between setting up some type of home program with our son with local help (totally doable in many places in Asia) and moving on.
The names/numbers of these types school change fairly often and right now, Shanghai and Hong Kong are the only places that I know for certain have special education schools for English speakers. I found many of these school just by searching special education and international schools (sometimes adding a +whatever city I was interested in).
There are a few regular international schools that have actual SPED programs (as opposed to learning support for students that are mainstreamed for everything/virtually everything). These would include ISBrussells, Int'l School of Geneva and Zurich Int'l School. ESF in HK also run 20+ schools and have a freestanding special needs school and would be a great option for you.
There are a few others and I will see if I still have that information somewhere. Next Frontier might also have some updated information (http://www.nextfrontierinclusion.org/). Don't get too excited by the member schools as they generally are talking about ways to promote more comprehensive SPED/inclusion services but most have not much to actually provide such services. I did see that they are looking to hire someone for a Beijing location.
Early on, a very nice admin type told us we should look into DoDDS as an option since they have to offer SPED services which would be much more comprehensive then most/all int'l schools would offer. We eventually were able to get in with DoDDS and it definitely has been a better situation for the whole family.
We did not include our son's disability in our letter of intro. This led to us getting many interviews but also much disappointment as you watch the interviewer mentally check out as soon as you get to the tell us about your son part of the interview. We had one memorable interview at a job fair where the question was asked 5 minutes in the interviewer stopped the interview right there. Possibly understandable on one level but quite hurtful on many others. I don't know the right answer for you. Eventually we learned to only apply to schools where there was an option at the school, in the city or a viable option to set up our own program due to the location.
I am writing this quickly before work so will post back later if I think of something to add. Also, you should be able to see an email address on my profile if you want to write. It can be done but there are definitely challenges to make it happen.
Re: Special Needs Options
This is also my issue. It's quite frustrating and I'm considering staying back in the US until he graduates. I'm in the middle of this conversation with a school that I'm very interested now but it may go south over this issue. I was looking at trying to employ someone to deliver his curriculum at home. Maybe he could attend some of the classes at the school. I worked for ESF schools in Hong Kong and I can recommend that in terms of offering services at all levels. It was not easy getting everything into place but I worked at one school and my son attended another school that had a learning center (self-contained). There is also the Sarah Roe School for high-level needs.
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: Special Needs Options
This document might be of some limited help for trying to target schools that may be open to taking students with special needs. Many/most of the entries say outright that they do not offer self-contained classes. Some may allow students if the parents provide/pay for an aide. Obviously even if schools say they will consider this for paying students, they may be reluctant to take on the child of a teacher under those circumstances.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/176076.pdf
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/176076.pdf
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: Special Needs Options
PsyGuy wrote:
> My issue with @WT123s experience involves a moderate, not sever needs child.
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True there are differences but in terms of int'l schools there isn't that much difference between moderate to severe (unless you are talking about severe equaling medically involved/fragile, severe behavior issues etc). Most schools either will not consider it, even with an aide or they have some type of more comprehensive program.
Other than our first int'l school where our son was mainstreamed with p/t assistance (which only partially worked because the class size was 7 and his teacher was young and wide open to the experience) we have had to look at alternative school settings for him. That was the meat of my input. Other than the few schools I mentioned, the OP would likely need to look to more specialized schools and alternative learning programs for their son while pursuing jobs at mainstream int'l schools.
> My issue with @WT123s experience involves a moderate, not sever needs child.
----------------
True there are differences but in terms of int'l schools there isn't that much difference between moderate to severe (unless you are talking about severe equaling medically involved/fragile, severe behavior issues etc). Most schools either will not consider it, even with an aide or they have some type of more comprehensive program.
Other than our first int'l school where our son was mainstreamed with p/t assistance (which only partially worked because the class size was 7 and his teacher was young and wide open to the experience) we have had to look at alternative school settings for him. That was the meat of my input. Other than the few schools I mentioned, the OP would likely need to look to more specialized schools and alternative learning programs for their son while pursuing jobs at mainstream int'l schools.
Re: Special Needs Options
You could do the first initial interview and I wouldn't mention it--you can ask questions if one of you is a special ed teacher looking for work and you'd be able to gauge the level of support--it's one of the first questions I ask in an interview--who is the target population for learning support at your school an what are the range of needs you see?
I've worked in 3 schools--1 very good, 1 quite good, and 1 not so good--and in none of them would they allow curriculum modification or an alternative program of study. It had nothing to do with resources or staffing--at the very good school, there were 5 learning support, 5 EAL, a speech pathologist and a school psych for the elementary and really almost unlimited resources that I needed. None of the schools would allow a TA or para from outside the school to come in and none would provide one for an individual student. There are some areas that raise the biggest flags--multiple disabilities, significant behavior concerns, and cognitively low students. Overseas teachers, no matter how good they are, generally have lower levels of experience working with students with disabilities because they aren't seen much in the international teaching world. The schools will expect that a child can meet the academic benchmarks with minimal support--that might be 3-4x a week of pullout sessions with or without mainstream class support, or less.
You don't do anyone--you, your child, or the school--any favors by minimizing the issues. Best to talk about it upfront pretty early on. Offer to submit documentation, recommendations, etc. from current teachers or therapist that can speak to what he really needs, but be prepared to have to take a pass on schools that won't work with your child. We have a high school son with learning needs and even with his level of writing challenges and some ADHD, we were very careful to ensure that schools we considered would be appropriate to meet his needs--even that ruled out some schools where I would be the LS teacher.
We have friends who were in London--their previous school was struggling with their son and they ended up at an international school, but their son went to a British school specializing in learning needs. They paid A LOT for the tuition, and that set-up won't be common in most countries. Some schools (ISBrussels) offers a school within a school that has a moderately severe academic program.
I've worked in 3 schools--1 very good, 1 quite good, and 1 not so good--and in none of them would they allow curriculum modification or an alternative program of study. It had nothing to do with resources or staffing--at the very good school, there were 5 learning support, 5 EAL, a speech pathologist and a school psych for the elementary and really almost unlimited resources that I needed. None of the schools would allow a TA or para from outside the school to come in and none would provide one for an individual student. There are some areas that raise the biggest flags--multiple disabilities, significant behavior concerns, and cognitively low students. Overseas teachers, no matter how good they are, generally have lower levels of experience working with students with disabilities because they aren't seen much in the international teaching world. The schools will expect that a child can meet the academic benchmarks with minimal support--that might be 3-4x a week of pullout sessions with or without mainstream class support, or less.
You don't do anyone--you, your child, or the school--any favors by minimizing the issues. Best to talk about it upfront pretty early on. Offer to submit documentation, recommendations, etc. from current teachers or therapist that can speak to what he really needs, but be prepared to have to take a pass on schools that won't work with your child. We have a high school son with learning needs and even with his level of writing challenges and some ADHD, we were very careful to ensure that schools we considered would be appropriate to meet his needs--even that ruled out some schools where I would be the LS teacher.
We have friends who were in London--their previous school was struggling with their son and they ended up at an international school, but their son went to a British school specializing in learning needs. They paid A LOT for the tuition, and that set-up won't be common in most countries. Some schools (ISBrussels) offers a school within a school that has a moderately severe academic program.
Re: Special Needs Options
One more--I wouldn't mention it in the cover letter. I would save it for a face-to-face where you have the chance to speak in more depth about your situation. In any of the schools we have interviewed with, we have brought it up in the 2nd (or possibly 3rd) interview--before we were offered positions.
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crypticvenus
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:26 pm
Re: Special Needs Options
Thanks everyone for the sound advice and suggestions. One of the first things I will do is to remove the tidbits about our little guy from my cover letter and profile. I thought being transparent about the his needs upfront would be the best way to go but apparently it's just an easy way to make an uninformed judgement call.
We had a really great interview Saturday and our references on ISS have been contacted, we're scheduled to reconvene tomorrow however our son didn't come up during the interview. Now I'm nervous about verbally mentioning it although it is currently mentioned on my profile. I've been doing my research and have been in contact with a local school about enrollment should we be offered a position. I may just play it by ear.
Depending on how tomorrow goes, having hubby take the lead may be the best bet short of landing jobs in an area with good special needs programs.
I have been using that pdf from the state department as a guide of schools to inquire about job openings.
We had a really great interview Saturday and our references on ISS have been contacted, we're scheduled to reconvene tomorrow however our son didn't come up during the interview. Now I'm nervous about verbally mentioning it although it is currently mentioned on my profile. I've been doing my research and have been in contact with a local school about enrollment should we be offered a position. I may just play it by ear.
Depending on how tomorrow goes, having hubby take the lead may be the best bet short of landing jobs in an area with good special needs programs.
I have been using that pdf from the state department as a guide of schools to inquire about job openings.
Discussion
@WT123
This is my concern, just how serious are the sever needs of the LW. There are severe needs such as LI that are easier to scale withina program and then some such as OD that would make attendance impossible.
@crypticvenus
I would strongly advise researching the municipal options prior to an interview. If the region has a municipal program that will be appropriate than your childs condition has no bearing or relevance to the IS in terms of educating them, and does not merit leaderships consideration or
I concur with @mamava, SPEd is SPEd lite, and the expectation is that a student is going to meet the expectations both behaviorally and academically. An IS may entertain a program tailored to a student if the parents can pay for it, but they arent going to do so at significant expense as art of a package for an ITs child. ITs do not get mush experience with LS/LD students and those skills deteriorate in an IT quickly if they arent working with tan LS/LD population.
However I have known ISs that permitted an outside TA/para.
This is my concern, just how serious are the sever needs of the LW. There are severe needs such as LI that are easier to scale withina program and then some such as OD that would make attendance impossible.
@crypticvenus
I would strongly advise researching the municipal options prior to an interview. If the region has a municipal program that will be appropriate than your childs condition has no bearing or relevance to the IS in terms of educating them, and does not merit leaderships consideration or
I concur with @mamava, SPEd is SPEd lite, and the expectation is that a student is going to meet the expectations both behaviorally and academically. An IS may entertain a program tailored to a student if the parents can pay for it, but they arent going to do so at significant expense as art of a package for an ITs child. ITs do not get mush experience with LS/LD students and those skills deteriorate in an IT quickly if they arent working with tan LS/LD population.
However I have known ISs that permitted an outside TA/para.
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crypticvenus
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:26 pm
Re: Special Needs Options
Update:
We did reconvene with the HOS on that Tuesday and were ultimately offered the positions which we have since accepted. The little guy did not come up in the conversation that Tuesday but he did come up afterwards when the HOS acquired about age and grade level. At that point I responded to the inquiry and informed him that the IS would not be able to accommodate his needs due to his disability and that we were looking for schools in the area.
The HOS wanted to know more about his needs so I emailed him a copy of his IEP and provided him a status of our search for a school. We set a date to talk which was today and so far he has been very supportive. I have switched the focus to home education now and he has offered the assistance of the HR department to help coordinate our search for a candidate to educate our son. I feel so much better and at ease now and this reconfirms why I want to be at this school.
We did reconvene with the HOS on that Tuesday and were ultimately offered the positions which we have since accepted. The little guy did not come up in the conversation that Tuesday but he did come up afterwards when the HOS acquired about age and grade level. At that point I responded to the inquiry and informed him that the IS would not be able to accommodate his needs due to his disability and that we were looking for schools in the area.
The HOS wanted to know more about his needs so I emailed him a copy of his IEP and provided him a status of our search for a school. We set a date to talk which was today and so far he has been very supportive. I have switched the focus to home education now and he has offered the assistance of the HR department to help coordinate our search for a candidate to educate our son. I feel so much better and at ease now and this reconfirms why I want to be at this school.
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: Special Needs Options
crypticvenus wrote:
> Update:
>
> We did reconvene with the HOS on that Tuesday and were ultimately offered the positions
> which we have since accepted. The little guy did not come up in the conversation
> that Tuesday but he did come up afterwards when the HOS acquired about age and grade
> level. At that point I responded to the inquiry and informed him that the IS would
> not be able to accommodate his needs due to his disability and that we were looking
> for schools in the area.
>
> The HOS wanted to know more about his needs so I emailed him a copy of his IEP and
> provided him a status of our search for a school. We set a date to talk which was
> today and so far he has been very supportive. I have switched the focus to home
> education now and he has offered the assistance of the HR department to help coordinate
> our search for a candidate to educate our son. I feel so much better and at ease
> now and this reconfirms why I want to be at this school.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations. I am very happy to hear that you have hopefully found a school and community that will continue to be supportive of your situation. We never quite had to go the home school/program route but we researched the possibilities in a few different locations (and still have contacts in Tokyo and Beijing if you ever find yourself job-hunting in those locations).
Good luck and I hope that everything continues to work out for you.
> Update:
>
> We did reconvene with the HOS on that Tuesday and were ultimately offered the positions
> which we have since accepted. The little guy did not come up in the conversation
> that Tuesday but he did come up afterwards when the HOS acquired about age and grade
> level. At that point I responded to the inquiry and informed him that the IS would
> not be able to accommodate his needs due to his disability and that we were looking
> for schools in the area.
>
> The HOS wanted to know more about his needs so I emailed him a copy of his IEP and
> provided him a status of our search for a school. We set a date to talk which was
> today and so far he has been very supportive. I have switched the focus to home
> education now and he has offered the assistance of the HR department to help coordinate
> our search for a candidate to educate our son. I feel so much better and at ease
> now and this reconfirms why I want to be at this school.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations. I am very happy to hear that you have hopefully found a school and community that will continue to be supportive of your situation. We never quite had to go the home school/program route but we researched the possibilities in a few different locations (and still have contacts in Tokyo and Beijing if you ever find yourself job-hunting in those locations).
Good luck and I hope that everything continues to work out for you.