This study by Stella Suk-Ching Chong, an assistant professor, and Ka-wai Leung, a teaching fellow, both at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, focuses on the perspectives of hostel staff from six residential schools for students with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. Individual or focus group interviews were conducted to explore the…

Young people with learning difficulties who go to residential special schools and colleges are highly vulnerable, often living a long way from home. Transition towards adulthood--from school to college, or college and beyond--requires careful planning and support for both young people and their families. Despite national policy and guidance in…

The relationship between mental health and special educational needs is both complex and misunderstood. In this article, Richard Rose, Professor of Special and Inclusive Education, Marie Howley, Senior Lecturer, Ann Fergusson, Senior Lecturer, and Johnson Jament, a PhD student, all from the Centre for Special Needs Education and Research directed…

The authors of this article, Garry Hornby and Chrystal Witte, conducted a follow-up study with adult graduates of a residential special school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in New Zealand. Twenty-one graduates were located and interviewed ten to 14 years after they had left the residential school. The interviews focused…

Research and practice involving children and adults with dyslexia has tended to focus on identifying difficulties in developing literacy skills and associated cognitive variables. Comparatively few investigations have focused on affective factors or on finding ways of enabling those with dyslexia to express their own attitudes, thoughts and…

We are entering a new phase in learning about childhood disabilities. While we have found out much of what we need to know about their causes and aetiology, solutions to many of the challenges we will face in the future will come from the evidence base held by practitioners. Practitioners are ideally placed to carry out "real world" research but…

A Scottish study of 615 pupils in 49 alternative day and residential schools found that over a two-year period, only 21 were successfully returned to the mainstream. Reasons for this finding include resistance of mainstream schools to reintegration; lack of financial support; family attitudes; sex differences in student placement; and the presence…

This article reports boys' experiences of life in a former residential school. The authors are all based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Mark Smith, who was a practitioner and manager in child and youth care settings in Scotland for many years, is currently course director of the MSc in Advanced Residential Child Care. Euan McKay is a…

This article summarizes findings of research into decision-making processes leading to residential special school placements in England. Results suggest the needs of individual children are not central to these decision-making processes and that local authorities who make such placements do not pay sufficient attention to protecting and promoting…

This paper discusses Great Britain's Children Act 1989, specifically as it relates to special needs children. It compares assessment under the 1989 Children's Act and the 1981 Education Act, outlines provisions for children in independent residential schools, examines procedures for child protection, and notes the child's right to withhold consent…

This article examines why pupils' perspectives should be considered in development of residential school services and explains how pupils' perspectives can be accessed. Findings from a study of two British residential schools for boys with emotional and behavioral disorders found that the elements of schooling most valued by students were respite,…

Examined are issues surrounding allegations of abuse in independent residential schools in Great Britain. The article focuses on the process of placing students in residential schools, protection of the rights of students, procedures for handling complaints of abuse, and proposed measures which can ensure the rights of students. (Author/JDD)

A survey of 35 parents of children with severe physical handicaps and severe/profound learning difficulties either attending or not attending a residential special school in Britain found that parents chose the school because of lack of local services, lack of family support, the 24-hour curriculum of the residential school, and provision of a…

Describes ways in which the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has been used by students at a residential British school for students with cerebral palsy and severe, or profound and multiple, learning difficulties. The effort's rationale, teaching techniques, and evaluation methods are discussed. A glossary of Internet terms is attached. (DB)

Staff of special schools are increasingly exposed to violent behavior, in the absence of policy directives from local education authorities and through ambivalent social attitudes in a society which demands that these children be contained and controlled but judges staff responses to the children by the same yardstick applied to mainstreamed…