The document discusses several questions related to education for students with autism in Belgium. It addresses: 1) How the three levels of special schools are determined and the process for reconsidering a student's level. Teachers and the student counseling center can suggest moving a student to a different level. 2) That most regular schools in Belgium accept students with high-functioning autism, though support varies between schools. 3) The importance of good relationships between schools, counseling centers, parents, and social services. Parents have final say over special needs schools but usually agree with recommendations. 4) Challenges in communicating with foreign parents who don't speak the language, and efforts to overcome language barriers.

1. AUT AUT Finalquestions! Final meeting Rimini 4-6 mai 2011

5. Question 2: How many regular schools accept students with autism (high functioning only?) in Belgium? Are there any differences among the different parts of Belgium?

6. Answer 2: Normally every regular school accepts students with autism with normal intellectual abilities. Some schools offer more help to the students than others. The general structure of education in the French part of Belgium is the same as in the Flemish part of Belgium. More information is written here: http://www.enseignement.be/index.php?page=0&navi=16.

7. Question 3: How is the relationship parents-school and social services? How much can the parents decide?

8. Answer 3: It is very important to have a good relationship with the parents as a school and also as students counseling centre (CLB). The school and the CLB can only do the suggestion to the parents to send their child to a special needs school. They are never obliged. It happens that parents don’t want to send their child to a special needs school. In that case it stays in the regular school with as much help as possible, but regular schools don’t have a paramedical staff. Most of the times the parents discover after a few years that this wasn’t the best solution for their child and then they change their mind. The special needs schools most of the time have a very good relationship with the social services. The students counseling centre is working at least one day a week inside the school for tests and talking with students.

9. Question 4: How is the particular work with the foreign students with difficulties and the relationship with their families?

10. Answer 4: The foreign students with difficulties have most of the time some extra problems with their language. This is because the language they talk at home. Even after being in Belgium for sometimes more than 15 years, the parents don’t speak Dutch. For the children it’s impossible to speak Dutch with their parents so they don’t practice enough. It is a pity. We try to have a good contact with the parents. Until two years ago we could call some free translators from a special service when we had to talk with parents who don’t speak Dutch. But this service isn’t free anymore, so most of the schools don’t use it anymore, we neither.

11. Answer 4: Talking with parents who don’t speak Dutch is very difficult because you can’t tell them really how it goes at school. Sometimes they speak a little bit of French or English. Sometimes brothers and sisters translate, but this is not the best way to talk because you are never sure that everything is translated right. We make some simple agreements with the parents. A message written in red is not good, a message in green is very good, a message in blue or black is just an announcement. For some parents we have stickers with symbols.

13. Question 6: Can teachers in special schools move to regular schools with inclusion? Do they do it sometimes?

14. Answer 6: After a few years teachers can have a permanent job in a school, but it doesn’t mean they can’t change anymore. Teachers can always change to another school if they want to. There are some systems that keep a door open to your old job if you just want to try something else after a few years but you don’t want to take the risk to lose your job. Teachers who don’t have a permanent job yet can also switch to another school if they want to, but they don’t have the right to go back to their old school then.

15. Question 7: At the regular school – ScheppersInstituut – how can school inclusion be carried out if the school mates don’t know the situation of the student with autism?

16. Answer 7: It’s the decision of the student himself if he or she wants to tell he has autism or not. After a few years most of the time they tell it to their schoolmates, but it’s not always like that. In Belgium the privacy of students is very important. Like the headmaster told us, the teachers provide some extra help for students with extra needs (autism or other needs), but they don’t tell to the other students why they are doing it if the student himself has not given the permission. Some schools organize some general things for all the students which are some help for the students with autism. In Scheppersinstituut they have some activities during lunch break for students who don’t like the chaos of the playground. There are always some activities that students with autism like very much like computer, …

17. Question 8: About life after school of the students in these regular schools: is anything organized to keep the school mates in contact/some social activity?

18. Answer 8: Every year the regular schools have an open day for their old students. They do some activities and eat most of the time together. But if you don’t come to these open days for a few years, you don’t receive an invitation anymore unless you contact the school yourself.

19. Question 9: At Scheppers regular school how do they manage the individualized work with the student with autism without actively including the class-mates? (They told us that often the classmates don’t know they have a friend with autism.)

20. Answer 9: For the individual work the student goes sometimes out the classroom or the student receives some extra help during the lunch break or after school.

21. Question 10: How do the families with children with autism get to know their rights?

22. Answer 10: The students counseling centre helps a lot. Every parent has to go to a special centre for the testing the child and they receive there a lot of information. There are also some special organizations for parents with children with autism like http://www.autismevlaanderen.be/ and http://www.autismecentraal.com.

23. Question 11: Is there a differentiation between the course curriculum for intellectual disability and autism?

24. Answer 11: The curriculum in Belgium in based on the intellectual abilities of students. Students with autism follow the curriculum of the school that matches with the intellectual abilities. For students with autism the school provides some extra support to reach the curriculum: extra support teacher, special techniques, …

26. www.socialeeconomie.be (Dutch)

28. http://www.pegasuseurope.be

29. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HippotherapyVocational training programs for autistic children At our school the students follow the same courses as the students without autism. There are some adaptations for the students who need this. The working of our school and also the adaptations for students with autism are written in our school presentation on www.autautaut.tk (project articles).