KV school is open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday. Currently, our staff includes a team of six special educators, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, one full-time basic therapist trained in speech and language development and one part time physician, six classroom assistants, three helpers, an office coordinator, three drivers, a cleaner and numerous volunteers. The principal has a Masters in Education and over twenty years in the field of mainstream education.
The children – all of whom have a mental handicap and often physical problems as well – range in age from 5 to 16. We discourage new admissions after 12, although special exceptions may be made in the case of transfers or children who have been well educated at home.
On the first visit to the school, we register the child and take basic information concerning her and her family. We then fix an  appointment – usually within a week or two - for the child to be seen by the principal or the physician who takes a detailed history and performs an educational/medical assessment. If the child has a physical disability, the senior physiotherapist also meets her. If further assessments and investigations are required, we arrange these as well. After assessment, we either admit the child to school immediately or put her on the waiting list.
Once admitted to the school, the child is placed in the appropriate group, depending upon her age and abilities. There, her teacher, in consultation with the principal, doctor and therapists, designs an Individual Education Program (IEP) which sets goals for the coming weeks or months based on the child’s needs and abilities.
Children attend school every day from 8:30 to 1:15. We provide transportation where possible based on need. The outdoors and the kitchen are important classrooms, and gardening and cooking are central in the curriculum. Children make regular trips to the market, the post office, and to local cultural events. Field trips to the railway station and the bus terminal are also regular features, as is education in the use of local transport. Our emphasis throughout is on developing the whole child and we place great stress on the understanding of concepts and processes.
We keep written records for every child which are confidential and can only be accessed by our staff. In addition, parents are given a file summarizing their child’s strengths, problems, needs and therapy plan. We charge fees for assessment and attendance at school on a sliding scale, based on family income. No family will ever be turned away because they cannot afford to pay. The maximum charges are Rs 100 for assessment and Rs 725 a month for regular attendance. |
