Germany Very Slow to Embrace Integration

A recent study has revealed surprising numbers from Germany reflecting the state of the integration of kids with special needs into school classrooms.

Overall, only 60% of pre-schoolers with special needs are integrated, 34% of elementary school students and 15% of high school students. This, despite the fact the Germany has adopted an official policy supporting integration and signed an international agreement to that effect, according to an article in thelocal.de.

The reasons given for this situation include "a lack of space" in appropriate classrooms.

The Bertelsmann Foundation, which produced the study, found that in 2009 there were some 480,000 students with special educations needs – about six percent of the country’s student population. Among these were 85,000 preschool age children.


As in Canada, the systems and scales of identifying students with special needs vary between jurisdictions, with German states claiming proportions of students requiring special education ranging from 6-11% of the total student population.


In Riverside School Board, the percentage of students who have an IEP (individualized education plan) is approximately 10% and rising. There is one specialized English language special needs school on the south shore of Montreal, REACH, which currently accommodates approximately 65 students with pervasive intellectual handicaps. It is the only public special needs school in the Montreal area, although the large majority of the students are from the Riverside area.

"Your truly honoured autism educator, Carly Fleischmann"

Pretty amazing stuff.

For anyone who missed seeing Carly Fleischmann on CTV News last night or on other media.



Carly's own blog is carlysvoice.com Changing the World of Autism

Ecole Vents Nouveau Inaugurates its White Room

Ecole Vents Nouveau is a specialized secondary school housing 130 students with special needs from the Commission Scolaire Marie Victorin and several other adjoining french language school districts in the Montreal south shore area. Vents Nouveau was opened in 2007. It is located at 5035 rue Orchard in St. Hubert, about 1 or 2 kms. from Centennial School.

 A "White Room" is a room for special light therapy which provides students with enriched sensory experiences. The school also has a gym, a pool, an "apartment-workshop" allowing students to develop basic domestic skills, and other workshops where workplace-oriented skills can be developed.

The inauguration of the "white room" was held Nov. 25, 2010.

***  Special Needs CEGEP for South Shore? ***

It has also been reported that a french-language special needs "over-21 centre" ( a CEGEP alternative) is in the works. Perhaps there will be further news or an official announcement regarding that in the near future.

The Fondation Bel Essor has set this up as a fundraising objective for 2010.

Some fundraising options to check out...

A couple of fundraising possibilities of an ongoing nature have come up.

One is Canada Helps


Another is sponsored by Pepsi. It is called the Pepsi Refresh Project

In this project, groups or individuals can win funding for good causes, ranging from $5,000 up to $100,000 by uploading a video entry onto the Refresh Project site. Definitely worth looking at.

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Next RAPID meeting Dec. 1, 7 p.m. at ARSDI

The next RAPID meeting will be held Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the ARSDI building in St. Lambert. RAPID stands for "Resources for the Anglophone Population with Intellectual Disabilities."

Comedy Nest Fundraising Event a Great Success for RAPID

The comics were on top of their game, the joint was packed, everyone had a great time and all the tickets were sold, with a few possible exceptions - final tallies to come. The event in support of kids and families with special needs / intellectual difficulties in the Montreal south shore area was termed a great success by organizers.

You couldn't ask for much more from a fundraiser evening so kudos to all involved. The Comedy Nest, the RAPID volunteer ticket selling "machine" and the four excellent Canadian comics, headlined by Jay Malone, who is now working out of LA. Let's just put it this way: further biographical details of the comics, as revealed during the performances, fall under the category of "what happens at the Comedy Nest..." you get the picture!

   

Hey Mom, Dad! Now I can tie my shoes by myself every day!

Ever notice how, as kids get a tiny bit older, there are fewer and fewer varieties of shoes with velcro fasteners available?

When your kids have special needs, this can be a much greater problem than it is otherwise. Finally, you get to that point in time when you have to search across all the stores in your area or further afield, just to find one usable pair of shoes that can be tied snug with anything but laces.

A Canadian company from Halifax has the problem solved with a great invention... the Quick Snap

The small plastic snaps can be fitted on most any shoes that have laces.

Getting the "thumbs up" on CBC's the Dragon's Den back in 2008 was a good boost for the company, but in this case most likely the idea was good enough that the super handy gadget would have taken off anyway.

Recently, Quick snaps have even been making appearances with Canadian troops overseas.

There are no stores carrying these products in the Montreal area according to the Quick Snap website however they are available online on the website. They also have a school fundraising program.

Don't get lost... Take A Hike! - Vancouver organization leads teens out of the woods

It's called "Take a Hike." It is a an alternative education program in which barriers to learning are minimized, personal issues are addressed, and students achieve a greater level of social and academic success.

Take a Hike is one of Clara Hughes' favourite causes, which raises the organization's profile and helps to explain why it easy to discover and why one might want to look into it further.

This is a program that empowers young people who have run into problems in the mainstream school system. Among other things, it gives them a belief in themselves and their abilities, as well as a lifelong respect and appreciation for nature and the outdoors.

The program combines the following four methodologies: adventure-based learning, therapies, academics and community learning.

Take a Hike has been around for over ten years, its foundation has raised over $1 million for at-risk students in Vancouver and its board of directors includes a generous selection of community and corporate leaders.

Keeping in mind that this is a school-based program, it must be recognized that various school districts across the country have developed their own alternative education solutions for their own communities. The program as it exists in Vancouver is also specifically utilized with "at risk" kids. There may be more to this than meets the eye however there is no readily apparent reason why some adapted version of Take A Hike couldn't be successful with other special needs groups.

It also sounds like this program has all the attributes of something that would be worth taking nation-wide. So hopefully we will see it, or something like it, soon in our own community, be it in Montreal or even in the South Shore Montreal area.

Wave Against Bullying on CTV News

Here is a link to the story on CTV News about the giant wave against bullying held yesterday which appeared on this blog last week. REACH, PACE, and three other St. Lambert RSB schools participated.

Dog Adoption Day to Be Held at REACH School

The St. Lambert Underdog Club Dog Adoption Extravaganza will be held Sat. Nov. 27 at REACH School, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

It's the first St. Lambert Dog Adoption event! Dogs will be there to give you a little one on one sugar! Organizers are hoping to find some wonderful pooches a permanent (and very lucky) home and spread the word about fostering, too. At very least, stop by and say 'how do'!

Beyond the obvious specially trained dogs, such as seeing eye dogs, it is well known that pets and dogs in particular can be great additions for families with special needs.

Here are ten reasons why pets are a good thing for kids (or adults!) with special needs.

1. Unconditional love
2. Companionship
3. Accomplishment
4. Exercise
5. Responsibility
6. Learning about animals
7. Communication
8. Organization
9. Money skills
10. Problem solving

(see the link for the longer explanations)

St. Lambert schools plan massive "Wave" against bullying

On Nov 16th, at approximately 11:00 a.m., over 1,000 students from Riverside School Board's St. Lambert schools will be participating in a wave against bullying. Over the past few weeks, some of the students have been involved in performing skits, making posters, listening to testimonials, etc., all to help them realize that bullying hurts and that it is time to do something to stop it.

Student at St. Lambert Elementary, REACH, Chambly Academy, PACE and the Alternate School will be gathering together, shoulder to shoulder, from one end of Green St. to the other. The students and teachers will be participating in the wave as a culminating activity to their campaigns against the harmful effects of bullying.

Organizers have applied for recognition to the Guinness World Records for the event, which will take place rain or shine.

Note: given the current situation with half of the down town streets dug up in St. Lambert, having a student wave running the length of Green should make driving in St. Lambert interesting, to say the least!  

CS Marie-Victorin spent $327 Mil in 09-10

The 2009-10 financial school year wrapped up for the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin with a very slight deficit of 0.28 per cent on expenditures of $327,635,437 and revenues of $326,708,566. There are approximately 35,250 students in the school district, that covers Brossard, St. Lambert, Greenfield Park, Vieux Longueuil and St. Hubert.

Special Needs Resources - Which is the Chicken and Which is the Egg?

As RAPID has grown and evolved, we have experienced some interesting results.

For example, we established years ago, literally, that there is a shortage of services in English for kids with special needs in the South Shore Montreal area (as if there were ever any doubt).

After all, this was the whole reason for establishing RAPID (Resources for the Anglophone Population with Intellectual Disabilities) in the first place.

Meanwhile, we have gotten to a place where we are now able to offer some services that have not been available in the past, such as ped day day camps or summer day camps for English-speaking kids with special needs.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it seems like the programs we have offered or co-offered with other service providers so far have had limited enrollment.

Whether there have been price issues, scheduling conflicts, or people have just gotten used to their own homemade solutions, we have learned that there is a gap between offering a service and having it well utilized.

Another piece of the puzzle is that, after years of people just "getting by", we suddenly throw a service out there with a price, a registration deadline and a certain marketing approach, basically on a one-shot deal.

Perhaps it is a lot to ask to hope that all the ducks are going to line up right off the bat for a given service that we offer.

It's almost as if we started this whole thing with a clientele but no services and we've almost gone full circle to having services but wondering where the clients are!

Perhaps the secret is persistence and repetition?

Please feel free to post your thoughts in comment form.

Treats at REACH School for goblins and ghosts!!

On Friday, October 29th, the children and staff of REACH School in St. Lambert celebrated Halloween. Some children participated in a concert of lip synch and dancing while the others cheered them on. Everyone wore a fabulous costume and some of the children did trick or treating around the school to other classrooms. After the concert, the children and staff danced to the music that was set up and played by one of the students. Some of the classrooms had parties and movies. It was a wonderful celebration enjoyed by all.

Thank you to all the teachers and staff for all the help and encouragement for this event to be a great success!

New Literacy Strategy for Longueuil and CS Marie-Victorin Territory

An action plan designed to prevent and combat illiteracy in Longueuil was unveiled by members of a group called Concertation Alphabétisation Longueuil (CAL), at a conference held at Notre-Dame de Longueuil school November 1.

Accompanied by the Députée for Taillon, Marie Malavoy, and the Chairperson of Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin, Lucie Désilets, were members of CAL, represented by Lorraine Chiasson of L’Écrit Tôt in Saint-Hubert, Lynne Renée Houle from Alphabétisation IOTA, Suzanne Daneau of La Boîte à lettres in Longueuil and Sonia Desbiens of Fablier.

The action plan consists of three levels of intervention, including prevention, conventional professional intervention and a more pro-active style of intervention where the person requiring services would be assisted or accompanied to the appropriate venue.

Next RAPID special needs meeting Wed., Nov 3

A reminder that the next meeting of RAPID will be Wednesday, Nov. 3, 7:00 P.M., at the ARSDI building in St. Lambert. All interested parties welcome.