The International Schools Review Forum

Could anyone share what the day-to-day is like in a Learning Support position? I'm interested just to know, but I'm also applying for a position that would include learning support along with another content area. I understand that the closest equivalent in the US would be Special Ed, but I would imagine there are some key differences. For example, do IEPs and accommodations exist in IE or is that only an American thing? What would an IS with a learning support opening be looking for in a candidate? Would experience in Special Ed in the US even be relevant? In my school in the US, most of the students that our sped teachers work with sadly have major issues (social, emotional, intellectual, financial) that are far beyond what any private international school would be willing to accept.

It will vary wildly from school to school, location to location. The majority of Learning Support positions/programs will likely involve some combination of push in support (by the teacher or an asst.) and a resource room type set up. The majority of students in learning support programs in int'l schools will have been judged to have "mild" disabilities and will be included for the vast majority of classes (if not all). A relatively few schools will have the LS teacher teaching a given subject, such as ELA/Social Studies and then put their students with some deficits in those classes (one of the big schools in Singapore uses/used to use that model).

So what your day would look is tough to say without further information. It's highly likely that it will generally involve assisting students complete their work for other classes with possibly some remediation, enrichment, study skills/organizational skills, etc. depending on the age/grade level. A very few schools will have more comprehensive programs, similar to the US/UK.

Many/most schools will have some type of IEP/SEN document that lays out accommodations, supports, present levels of performance, goals, etc. but they are obviously not binding, legal documents in most cases.

LS/SPED has been a great certification to have and has helped me find jobs in two states and 5 countries (and ultimately land us our dream gig/location with DoDEA).

Good luck!

In reply to your specific questions:

1) IEP's exist but not in a form your probably use too. They are called "Action Plans" outside of ASs. In BSs SPED is called SEN (Special Educational Needs) and in IB its called LD (Learning Diversity). Yes, modifications exist, but there is a much stronger focus and mandate that the student has to do the work to the same standard to get the same mark/grade (or the IS is just going to take the coin and do nothing).

2) Flexibility, adaptivity, creativity. LS is mostly highly functioning students that if your doing resource your tutoring individuals or small groups and your job is finding a different way to deliver the material to the students.

3) It would be relevant if you did mostly mild needs and a little ED. If you were doing serious needs or multi needs or in a BMU or LSU, its not going to be applicable.

There isnt an IS anywhere (DoDDS schools being the exception, but they arent really ISs) currently that provides SPED services in compliance with US/UK/AUS/CAN law. Among them there is an AS in SG that probably gets as close as they come and even they make a point to inform their parents that they dont provide SPED services in compliance with US law.
The issue is simply this, coin. ISs are private/independent schools, meaning that they have to generate the revenue themselves to provide the programs that they do. In absence of government funding, SPED programs are EXTREMELY expensive on a per student basis. You have a very small group of SPED students, and you have to provide them a lot of services. Thats not a sustainable business model. So to run a SPED program a school has to pay for it, and with the exception of some small embassy grants its the parents that have to pay for a SPED program. To put it in perspective The average tuition at a tier 1 school is about $10K, for a SPED program your looking at an average inception cost of $220K (this is the cost of creating a program without any students), with a distributive cost of $55K/n4 (this means the program doesnt roll out with less then 4 students), thats a lot of money.
Top tier schools though have a reputation and mandate to provide for the communities they serve. The question is "what price point can a school serve its students to the satisfaction of the parents, and generate revenue on those fees?" The solution is SPED lite.
As you increase the degree of disability you drastically begin to decrease the number of servicing students. The reality is that students with severe needs require more care then just SPED, they require a whole host of medical, psychological, social and human services, that are outside the scope of an international "expat" assignment. Simply, parents are not going to be comfortable taking an international assignment with a child requiring such a degree of care. What you see in the majority of a SPED lite programs are (primarily) mild needs students and (secondary) high functioning moderate needs (including LD/ED) students. By restricting services to this class of the student population the school can serve community and still generate revenue, simply because the resources needed to manage this classification of students is much less expensive.

Schools accomplish this by 1) There nature as private/independent schools allows them to be selective of their admissions. They can simply say "were sorry we cant admit your child, as we are unable to provide the services their educational program will require". 2) They are largely self regulated. Typically these programs have minimal governmental regulation and oversight (such as privacy issues). They get to create the program, can change it very quickly, and typically have a monopoly on this segment of the student population.

So whats a typical SPED lite program, this is my experience (and it differs from other contributors on this site. Its usually a large tier 1 school, with an American curriculum (which may also be an IB program). The SPED department will consist of a LS (learning Support) or SEN (Special Educational Needs) coordinator, who will be part of the junior admin team. The coordinator will work closely with the school counselor, and serve as the point of contact for outside third . professionals (doctors, psychologists, social workers). The faculty will consist (depending on the size) of full time resource teachers who provide "pull out" service. they usually work in a resource classroom, and may work one on one of in small groups of students. Typically you will have 1 full time teacher for primary and another for secondary, though of course there could be more. In addition you will have a number of part time teachers (though could be full time) of teacher aids/assistants who will provide "inclusion services" (part time is what really saves the school money (part time means no foreign recruited package, and local hires are much cheaper. Jane student might only need services for literature and social studies class. no reason to have an inclusion teacher in the classroom for art, PE, etc if its not needed).
Where you will see the major differences is in documentation, procedures and classroom issues. Basically, no ARD committees, or endless amounts of paperwork. Before a SPED student is admitted the administration will send the application and supporting outside reports to the SEN coordinator, who will conduct a screening interview with the parents/student. Depending on the services the school provides, if the student can be accommodated by the schools service plan then they will provide an IEP or Action Plan to the parents (through senior administration) describing what services and limits the school will provide and what the fees will be (sometimes parents just leave). If the parents accepts then the student enters the standard placement path, with modification for the students IEP (for instance some students are served for some classes by being placed in a higher/lower grade classroom, though the IEP may indicate no more then one grade lower).
At this point the students SEN teacher will likely have a conference with the parent either prior too or shortly after the student is placed. On the first day the SEN teacher will meet with the student and introduce them to their inclusion teacher(s) and go over the students schedule, etc. the students general ed teachers will be notified, and any special instructions given. Heres where one of the big differences is, typically the general ed teacher has a much more limited purpose in the classroom with the student. The support (inclusion) teacher or resource teacher does the heavy lifting. Usually the student has outside instruction/tutoring time. You may be asked to give the resource teacher a copy of an exam to be administered, etc. The interruption in the classroom is very minimal.
The second main difference is paperwork and documentation requirements. The general ed teacher will typically not be required to do any more paperwork then what they already do for there non SPED students. The SEN teacher will typically do a weekly report, but its a brief report, a few observation, and an update on the students progress. Thats really it.
Usually every couple months the SEN coordinator will review the progress of the student and schedule a conference with the parents, which may often be a telephone conference. They will discuss the students progress and possible modifications to the students IEP. Thats about it. There are no ARD committees and rules and regulatory procedures. The SEN faculty may have a monthly meeting, though once a term or 8 weeks is more common.
Generally speaking chronically, the hot diagnosis are Dyslexia (which include a lot of other mild learning disabilities) and ADHD (which include a lot of other emotional disabilities). Acutely, the SEN department will see acute depression (life events) and muscle skeletal injuries (broken bones, etc).