India, Families, and a Special School

Byrd, E. S. (2010). India, families, and a special school. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 6(3), 1-11.

• “…Persons with Disabilities Act provides guidelines for those who will receive support under the law, as well as who will be responsible for diagnosis.  Of particular note, is that PDA limits its services to those individuals whose conditions are more severe—that is those students who need educational support for more than 40% of the school day” (p. 3).
• “Currently, the number of special schools in India is around 2500” (p. 4).
• “These schools are registered with the rehabilitation Council of India, and are allowed to apply for government support.  Nevertheless, the small number of special schools does not begin to serve the population of students with disabilities” (World Bank, 2007).
• “Another challenge for Indian special education is the need for parents and families to have better information and services” (p. 8).
• There are not enough programs offered in the field of special education to help potential special educators become qualified, trained professionals (Byrd, 2010).  This is a major cause for the shortage of special education teachers.
• Another successful nonresidential private school in India, Bethshan Special School (created in 1996), have a staff of twelve teachers, all of which are trained in special education (Byrd, 2010).   Having such highly trained and educated instructors at a private special education school is rare in the literature, and has proven to promote greater success at this particular school.  Byrd (2020) identified a variety of services that provides students with intellectual disabilities including (1) academic and job readiness, (2) supporting parents and family members, (3) providing social events to facilitate fellowshipping, (4) diagnosing of individuals with disabilities by a psychologist, staff, and parents, (5) and a positive outlook on the potentials of individuals with disabilities in the community.