Quality indicators for SNE - Austria

Quality Indicators of Special Needs Support

Comparative studies carried out in the western industrialised countries over many years have shown coinciding beneficial factors for the positive development of children. For example, criteria developed in the USA (Harms & Clifford 1997) correspond to the views of process qualities of the EU and the WHO (Tieze, Schuster & Rossbach).

Experts from the pre-school field have regarded the following core elements to be fundamental for the children’s development process:

- care tailored to age and developmental stage under supervision of adults, safe toys, equipment and furniture;

- education beneficial for health which offers children the opportunity to be physically active and rest, provides hygiene education and also complies with their alimentary needs;

- appropriate encouragement of children, giving them the opportunity to play and learn in diverse fields, such as language, arts, music, role playing, fine motor and gross motor skills, pre-school mathematics and the combined subject of science, local geography and history;

- positive interactions with adults whom the children trust and from whom they can learn in a manifold of ways;

- fostering the individual emotional development, which permits children to learn independently and autonomously, safely and competently; and 

- promotion of the relationship with other children, which permits the children to interact with other peers in a supportive environment and under the supervision of adults.

Children with special needs are specially promoted as soon as their educators have appraised the degree of their needs (physiotherapy, speech therapy etc.) and modified the equipment, the educational programme and the daily schedule.

Source: 

Harms, Clifford: ‘Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale’. Luchterhand. Neuwied 1997 

Tieze, Schuster, Rossbach: ‚Kindergarten - Einschätz- Skala – KES’

2. Formulate guidelines for the organisational management of SNE offers in the frame-work of existing legal regulations in the regions and at the school locations and thus put an emphasis on the schools’ obligations which proceed from the general SNE objectives.

3. Define pedagogic requirements and preconditions for instruction more explicitly, which can be regarded as minimum standards taking into account the individual promotion of all pupils and the achievement of inclusion targets. 

A number of areas for further improvement which policy makers should focus on were identified by the QSP Core Team:

• Inclusive Education as the Standard Alternative of Special Needs Support 
• Making Resource Allocation for Special Needs Support More Flexible 
• Special Education Centres as Hubs for Resource Distribution and Quality Agencies 
• Objective Procedure to Identify Special Educational Needs
• Individual Education Plans - Process Standards for Special Needs Support 
• Optimal Usage of Resources and Support Potentials in Fully Adapted Inclusive 
• Minimum Standards for Material Equipment and Personnel Resources)
• There is something wrong here?
• The current outcomes of the project suggest further efforts specifically on improving the following areas:
• Quality Standards for Education in Inclusive Classes 
• Individual Education Plans as Instruments of Education Planning, Evaluation and Quality Assurance 
• Reorganisation of the SEN Procedure Towards a Better Consideration of the Principles of Provision Diagnosis, Participation and Transparency 
• More Flexible Resource Allocation – Preventive Support Provisions
• Measures to Change the Professional Self-Conception of (Special Needs) Teachers 

Further information on the QSP – project access http://qsp.or.at/index_a.html and

http://www.cisonline.at/index.php?id=39&L=1

New Curricula, Circular Letters of the Ministry

Revised curricula for students with learning disabilities, for blind students and for deaf students were brought into force at the beginning of the academic year 2008/09. 

All curricula can be downloaded in German language from

http://www.cisonline.at/index.php?id=8

According to some of the outcomes of the QSP – project the ministry provided the regional and district school boards with circular letters in order to set up more standardised procedures concerning the basic assessment of SEN – students, the use of Individual Education Plans and quality standards in inclusive settings. 

The circular letters are available in the German language:

http://www.cisonline.at/index.php?id=43 

Further information on appropriate measures on the transition from school to the labour market and the inclusion of adolescents with disabilities in the primary labour market can be found in the publications of the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, the related brochures of the European Agency at ‘Recommendations’, and on the website of the Federal Ministry for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection:

http://www.cisonline.at/index.php?id=81&L=de and 

www.bmsk.gv.at