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15 percent of the frameworks for children on the autistic continuum across the country and close to 30% in the Tel Aviv and Central region received permission from the Ministry of Education to shorten the school day - this is according to data submitted in response to a joint freedom of information request to Walla!
and success association.
This, after the High Court blocked at the beginning of the year the shortening that the Ministry of Education planned to apply to all frameworks, and the Ministry's promise to approve requests only in exceptional cases.
In total, 648 frameworks were approved to shorten the learning hours by 45 minutes - to 4:00 p.m. contain 4,178 classrooms and media kindergartens, in all of which the children have finished earlier than required in recent months. In the shadow of the war that has been going on since October 7, the number of frameworks that have reduced the actual hours is probably higher.
Table of frameworks that sought to shorten the school day for children on the autistic continuum/Walla! system, no
Division into districts emphasizes what is already known: the manpower shortage in some areas is much higher than others.
In the central region, at least 28% of the frameworks shortened the school day, in Tel Aviv about 27%, in the Jerusalem district 17% and in the ultra-orthodox district about 15%.
The South district lowers the average with 12%, and the rest show single percentages - in the North district only seven applications were approved, in Haifa and the settlement education two each, and in the city of Jerusalem itself zero.
So, at least, according to the data they provided to the Ministry of Education.
Officials dealing with the issue explain that the gap is due to a low supply of teaching staff in the central settlements compared to a high rate of children diagnosed with autism.
The teams see the wide range of jobs in the area, look again at the working conditions and the low wages they receive in the special education - and turn their eyes towards more rewarding jobs.
On the other hand, the sources say, in the Haifa region and the north, the vacant places on the faculty of the institutions are quickly filled, partly due to the high number of educators in the Arab society.
Sometimes those educators even move to work in the south in the shadow of the lack of jobs in their region, so the shortage there also decreases.
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The data, on the one hand, show that the Ministry of Education failed to fulfill its obligation to approve applications only "in very exceptional cases" after the options for alternative solutions were exhausted, as the Ministry's CEO Meir Shimoni defined it in a letter he sent to the district administrators in August. Education Minister Yoav Kish for his part warned back then that "We certainly won't be able to hold classes in all settings until 4:45 p.m., so unfortunately many settings will be forced to close before then
." The education claimed that there is currently a personnel problem, which she understands that the High Court of Justice said, but in some cases this will not be possible," she said.
"They said only in exceptional cases, but we still have the same staff and they still cut back. There is no excuse for this. Is there a shortage of personnel? Find a solution. Pay more, operate a daycare center, don't leave the parents in a situation where there is nothing to do. The High Court has determined something, this Just break the law.
No one watches too much, no one gets upset, so they let themselves go.
We don't think about the consequences."
And the consequences are not simple, for her son as well as for her. "I work full-time and now I have to leave work earlier.
Right now the managers accept it, but I don't know what will happen next.
This is not an ordinary child, he will not suddenly go home alone.
It won't go away," she emphasizes. "In the short term, he has an extra hour of staring at screens instead of studying or meeting friends, which is critical for children on the continuum.
During these hours, the last of the day, they develop social skills the most.
I find myself alone in the face of all this."
Illustration/ShutterStock
However, compared to the collective "punishment" he sought to inflict on all the children, it seems that the ruling of the Supreme Court proved itself.
Instead of 100% finishing early - 85% study all the hours they are due.
The National Association for Children and Adults with Autism (ALOT) sees this as a success. "The number of frameworks that manage to spend an entire school day is our victory," boasts attorney Michael Zatz, director of the association's community division.
"From our point of view, these data tell the story - the problem is not horizontal as they said, and does not justify a reduction in all the frameworks," he added.
According to him, approval in "exceptional cases" was never an option for the Ministry of Education.
"The office probably tried to use the terminology of an exceptional case to prevent a flood of requests. So that the school and the authority will see that they made efforts."
Chief Justice Dafna Barak Erez/official website, Shlomi Gabai
For the association, this is proof that they were right in the stubborn fight they waged against the Ministry of Education during the holiday.
The notice of the abbreviation was first received in June.
A month later they filed a petition in an attempt to prevent the decree, and just before the beginning of the year the decisive hearing came at the High Court. Judges Dafna Barak-Erez, Yitzhak Amit and Ofer Grosskopf then based the cancellation of the sweeping summary on flaws that fell in the making of the decision, but added and criticized the lack of consideration in the difficulties experienced by the parents and the children. "The solution of 'I will not have it either' was no longer desirable in the Shlomo trial, and it is not desirable even in the case before us," stated Barak-Erez. "The fear that the sweeping decision to shorten the school day will not remain a temporary decision for the year - two years, and that the temporary one will become permanent," Grosskopf reasoned, and together the judges wrote that "the meaning of this sweeping decision is harm to tens of thousands of students who study in settings where there is no shortage of manpower that necessitates the shortening of the school day."
Parents of children in special education demonstrate outside the Ministry of Education/official website, Avihai Haim, Shavim
Not a day passed until dozens of educational institutions informed the parents that they would not be able to comply with the High Court's decision. It did not surprise those involved in this field. Already last year, the school day was unofficially shortened in many places. At the ALOT they realized that the battle was going to continue, but they did not yet know which This fight will be.
As in the rest of the country, the outbreak of war on October 7 significantly worsened the situation for the special education children as well.
For them, the displacement from their homes and the accompanying consequences were even more difficult.
"The state was not prepared and until the beginning of January they did not even know how many children with special needs were evacuated and where they were. In the end, the Ministry of Education was able to map 80% of the children. The rest probably left the hotel, rented an apartment and are not on the radar," says Zatz .
Sooner or usually later the children enrolled in educational institutions.
Here is a combination within the framework of special education in Tel Aviv, where there is a new school between the salt.
However, the effects of the war were evident not only in the evacuee settlements.
Staff members and their spouses were called to the reserves, or were required to be with the family following a loss, and left the frameworks.
The result: shortening of school days without formal approval from the Ministry of Education following a spot turnover in personnel.
Only in the last month or two did the real return to normality begin.
Now, the parents and children hope, they will be able to start getting back to normal.
By 4:45 p.m., please.
Elad Man, the ombudsman of the Success Association, stated that "publicizing the implementation of the decisions to shorten the school day is of great importance in terms of control and monitoring and the examination of the policy established by the Ministry of Education.
It is appropriate that data of such great importance be published by the ministry proactively and not only in response to requests submitted to it."
More on the same topic:
Special Education
High Court
Autistic people
autism
Yoav Kish
Ministry of Education