The question of whether school attendants can also assist with home schooling has not been clarified. For the “Inclusion Bavaria” initiative, this borders on the lack of assistance.
Everyday school life in Corona times: Lydia Back, who actually has a different name and does not want to give her real name to protect her family, has to support her teenage daughter who goes to the technical college in Schweinfurt with home schooling. Occasionally also their younger sister, who “doesn’t always do it alone”. And then there is her twelve-year-old son, who usually copes with everyday school life with the help of a school attendant due to a slight intellectual disability. He also gets home schooling. However, his school attendant was sent on short-time work. The responsible welfare association, with which he is employed, says that school attendants can only help at home in individual cases and if it is well founded. So the complete support is left to Lydia Back.
Parents were not informed
The “Network Inclusion Bavaria” points out that disabled children, who have normally been assigned a school supervisor in their school, also have this right on days when the schools are closed and have to switch to home schooling because of the Corona crisis . In Lower Franconia, support was also made possible in exceptional cases at home.
However, the parents were “not informed about this legal right of the child”. Christine Primbs from Aub (district of Würzburg), who is the board member of the Bavaria Inclusion Network, complains that neither the municipalities or the district as the cost bearer nor the charities have complied with this information requirement. Primbs speaks of a scandal. For them, this behavior borders on failure to provide assistance.
Photo: Alfred Gehring
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“The child’s right to education must be paramount,” says Primbs. If there is a need for support under disability law, this support is a human right. It should therefore not be left to the parents whether their children receive this support even in Corona times.
Instead, many counties in Bavaria would have cut school attendants to children with emotional and social support needs, and charities would have sent school attendants on short-time work. In a letter to all district councilors and mayors in Bavaria, the association urges “to ensure that the assistants are sent home to support the disabled children and their families”.
Few inquiries
There were “very few” inquiries for school attendants at home schooling, said Anne Stengel from the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) in Würzburg when asked by this editorial team. As a welfare association, the ASB provides school attendants in Würzburg and the surrounding area. These requests had to be rejected because otherwise they would have entered a legal gray area. The responsibilities are simply not clear and the school attendant should have had to pay for this in case of doubt.
Andrea Krist from the association FortSchritt comments similarly: “Our employees are employed for the service in the school.” In all cases, however, a solution was found through the emergency care of the schools.
Photo: Maurizio Gambarini, dpa
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Michael Plagens organizes school attendants for the Malteser Hilfsdienst in Lower Franconia. He very much regretted that he could not make it available for home schooling because he could very well understand the plight of the families affected, according to the social worker. However, he only got three specific inquiries.
Since the Maltesers in Lower Franconia were only refinanced by unskilled assistants, whose area of responsibility was also precisely defined, he could not send school attendants home without violating existing agreements. In other Bavarian districts, specialists, such as child care workers, would also be refinanced in individual cases. An assistant is only the extended arm of the teacher and may only be used if no other help – such as a therapist or the parents – is available.
School attendants are only assistants
For the district of Lower Franconia, press spokesman Markus Mauritz announced on request: The school attendant as part of the integration aid should enable school attendance and thus participation in the community. School attendance is generally only carried out at school under the supervision of the pedagogical staff available there. Since school attendants have no educational mandate, only assistants are used as school attendants.
Mauritz continues: “Against this background, general home schooling of students with disabilities by school attendants is not possible. This would also favor the parents of children with disabilities over parents of children without disabilities, because they too have to do without special support with the Corona temporary school closings. “
Nevertheless, due to the corona situation, the district of Lower Franconia finances school attendance in individual cases, even in the home. For example, with single parents, parents in systemically relevant professions, with exceptionally severe disabilities or the risk of a child’s well-being. “However, parents should primarily take advantage of the emergency care options offered, since the child also shares in the community with other children.”
Kerstin Celina: There is a demand, structures do not
On the other hand, the Bavarian Ministry of Culture sees a claim to assistance with home schooling. In response to a request from the Lower Franconian state parliament member of the Greens, Kerstin Celina, it says: “The school closings of March 2020 do not mean that the children are on vacation. The schools generally compensate for the unusual face-to-face classes on digital offers and tasks there is still a need for support to participate in education in many cases. “
Photo: Richard Schönherr
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Celina criticizes that although there is a claim, the Ministry of Education does not clarify how it should be implemented. The structures are simply not there. You can imagine that currently empty classrooms would be used for home schooling. However, no one even thought of organizing protective clothing for school attendants.
The author himself has a disabled son, who would, however, belong to the risk group for Covid 19 diseases. For this reason, the parents forego a school attendant for home schooling from the outset.
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