The organizations of rehabilitative daycare centers for children with disabilities aged 0-3 have informed parents that they must prepare for a full shutdown as of 17.05.23.
In a letter to the parents, they noted that the negotiations with the Ministries of Finance and Welfare had failed, and that the massive departure of the staff members due to their exclusion from the wage agreement recently signed with the kindergarten assistants left no choice but to stop the activity altogether.
"It is with great sorrow that we are forced to admit that the struggle we have waged in recent weeks, which comes to prevent the collapse of the rehabilitative daycare system, has failed and the many efforts made by all of us have not borne fruit.
Negotiations with the Ministries of Finance and Social Welfare failed. Minister of Finance Smotrich,
"The government representatives chose to blatantly and regrettably ignore them despite all the serious warnings that we made sure to raise with them all the time. We expressed real concern about the collapse of the rehabilitative daycare system, which they simply chose to ignore. These words are written with great pain after another assessment carried out by us, the heads of the organizations, during which it was understood to all of us that there is no choice but to update on the shutdown of the rehabilitative daycare system," wrote the letter to the parents of about 4000,<> toddlers with disabilities throughout the country.
"Recently, we shared with you about the struggle we intend to wage against government ministers, a struggle that we embarked on full of hope so that they will understand the magnitude of the disaster that may occur if they do not listen and address the real threat created by blatant discrimination in the salaries of assistants in rehabilitative daycare centers, which causes a massive exodus of staff members.
"Apart from empathy and slogans thrown into the air, we were unfortunately left with no response, and we have reached an illogical situation that the Israeli government brought before us with its own hands – a wave of departures of our staff members for other positions in local authorities and the Ministry of Education. This is an irreversible process that leaves us with no choice but to update on the shutdown of the rehabilitative daycare system.
"The government has a legal obligation to provide a treatment response." Residence, illustration, photo: Getty Images
"We took advantage of all the means at our disposal to prevent the closure of the frameworks, in order to maintain the full routine of the children and their families. Special children who need a therapeutic and rehabilitative response and chose to ignore them.
"Know that we have voiced to every possible party that these are not frameworks that are important only because they allow you to go out to work, but essential frameworks that take care of and provide a critical response to your children. We made it clear in all our conversations to representatives of the Finance and Welfare ministries that this is not a good deed but a legal obligation. The government has a legal obligation to provide a therapeutic response to more than 4,000 children with complex disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, autism and more.
"The current situation requires the government to approve, without further delay, the equalization of budgeting, the comparison of wage terms that are necessary to implement in order to curb the abandonment we are experiencing. As mentioned, they chose not to respond and even to abandon 4,000 children without a response!"
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