• Phone: 04-6520301, 04-6520303
  • Reception hours: Sunday and Wednesday 16:00 – 18:30; Monday 08:30 – 10:00
  • Address: POB 2016, 47 Yehoshua Hankin St. Afula.

Functionaries

Name

Position

Phone

Email address

Meir Ozeri

Department director and Chair of the Education Placement Committee

04-6520306

[email protected]

Inbal Ginzberg

Co-Chair of the Education Placement Committee and in charge of individual treatment.

04-6520380

[email protected]

 Responsibilities of the special education branch

  • Setting municipal policy in the domain of special needs students.
  • Advance and develop the aptitudes and abilities of each special needs child.
  • Correct and improve functioning—physical, mental, psychological, and behavioral.
  • Impart knowledge, skills, habits and socially accepted behaviors in order to ease integration into society.

Commitment of the department

Map out students with special needs, from the ages of 3 to 21 (Compulsory Education Law).

  • Participate in sessions of the Integration Committee.
  • Participate in discussions of the Placement Committee.
  • Assign students to integration frameworks.
  • Assign classroom assistants to special education transport vehicles.
  • Follow and supervise students' progress in special education frameworks.
  • Assign special education students to schools outside of Afula.
  • Operate learning programs in association with Psychological Services, the Regional Support Center, and Ministry of Education special education inspectors. 

Placement and Assignment committees  

These local committees are headed by the Education Administration and Ministry of Education inspectors who discuss issues connected with the advancement of local students who are struggling with the mainstream curriculum.

Committees' function and authorities 

  • Set local/regional policy for treating special needs students who are integrated in the regular education framework.
  • Initiate and carry out instructional activity for regular education staffs.
  • Reinforce special projects aimed at integrating special needs students in regular education frameworks.
  • Allocate teacher/staff hours to kindergartens and schools.
  • Encourage initiatives for partial integration of special needs students into regular education frameworks.
  • Approve referrals of students to placement committees.

Placement Committee

  • The Placement Committee operates in accordance with the Special Education Law (1988).
  • The Committee is a professional body whose composition conforms with particulars of the Law. It has the authority and responsibility to make decisions concerning the eligibility of special children for special education and assigning those children to an educational framework that matches their needs.

Composition of the Committee

Director of the Special Education department (committee chair), supervisor of special education, director of Psychological Services, representative of the Social Welfare department, representatives of the school and the child's parents.

Committee principles

The child's parents will be involved in the entire process.

Decisions of the Placement Committee are based on information relayed to it by professional bodies and on the input of parents and other invitees.

The Committee will grant priority to placing a child, if possible, in the mainstream education framework.  The student is treated in the framework of the 'integration basket'.

Assigning students to special education 

Assignment of students to special education is handled by the Committee in association with the director of the Special Education department, supervisor of special education, and the director of Psychological Services.  Placements are in special kindergartens, special education classrooms at regular schools, and schools for special education.

Role of the Assignment Committee

  • Gather data concerning options for absorbing new students in special education frameworks.
  • Assignment of external students referred by other Local Councils.
  • Assignment of students for whom no local framework has been found in another Local Council.
  • Coordinating the transfer of students between special education frameworks within the Local Council.

Appeals Committee

A parent is entitled to appeal decisions of the Placement Committee before the Appeals Committee within 21 days of the decision.  Up until deliberations by the Appeals Committee, the student will continue attending his/her current education framework.

Composition of the Committee

Participants in the Committee include:  The Ministry of Education district director or his/her representative (Committee Chair), the regional educational psychologist, the supervisor of special education, and a representative of the national Parents' Committee.  Parents are entitled to speak before members of the Committee.

Pedagogical assistants

The Local Council employs pedagogical assistants in both the special and regular education system.  Such assistance is part of the overall support apparatus for classrooms and the individual student.

Classroom assistants – job description

  • Assist the teacher in preparing didactic material.
  • Extending individual educational-scholastic assistance to individual students.
  • Participation in school staff meetings.
  • Assistance in imparting skills to students and practicing those skills.
  • Involvement in school life in accordance with changing needs, with an emphasis on special education.

Private assistants – job description

  • Extending education and physical assistance to students who are limited from a motor and functional aspect.
  • Accompanying students to professional treatment sessions at school.
  • Attending to the personal cleanliness of each student.
  • Assistance to students who have problems with mobility, including assistance in using the bathroom, eating and getting dressed.
  • Receiving students upon arrival to school.

Transportation escorts

The department is responsible for assigning suitable escorts to special education buses/vans to school–within and outside of the city.

  • Escorts are assigned to buses/vans in accordance with instructions of the Ministry of Education.
  • The escort will be present throughout the transport of students.
  • The escort will assist students in boarding and getting out of the vehicle.
  • The escort must make sure that students are sitting with their safety belts on.
  • The escort will make sure that students enter the vehicle in an organized manner.
  • The escort will have a list of students given to him/her by the Local Council who are scheduled for that particular trip.
  • The escort will report all irregular phenomena and events to the Local Council.