[Anchor]
Sending a child with disabilities or developmental delays to a special-needs school requires an intense admission battle starting at least a year in advance. This is right around the application season for next year. With a severe shortage of special schools, entire families are traveling across the country in search of a school.
Reporter Park Soo-jin has the story.
[Reporter]
Eight-year-old Seon-yul has autism spectrum disorder and an intellectual disability.
Seon-yul's family moved from Seoul to Gangwon Province last November to find a special school for him to enter.
[Shin Young-in / Mother of a child with autism spectrum disorder: Because Seon-yul cannot speak on his own, I thought he needed to study in a specialized environment.]
There were no eligible schools in the neighborhood where Seon-yul used to live, and nearby schools had extremely high competition rates.
[Shin Young-in / Mother of a child with autism spectrum disorder: Someone told me that getting into a special school is harder than getting into Seoul National University.]
Quite a few parents sign housing contracts without even viewing the properties just to submit their applications.
[Parent who migrated to Jeju Island: The application deadline was the very next day, and I found out about it the day before. Without visiting the house, I just contacted a real estate agent and made a preliminary contract.]
Over the past 20 years, the student population has decreased by about 36 percent, while the number of students requiring special education has more than doubled.
While education is available in special-needs classes or general classes at regular schools, children who desperately need special schools due to severe disabilities are being pushed down the waiting list due to a lack of facilities.
[Parent applying to a special school in Gyeonggi Province: They told me that the competition rate was low this year at around 5-something to 1, and that it had been much higher than that before.]
The mother of Si-ha, who has a severe physical disability, even submitted an appeal to the education office while filling out an application for a special school.
[Baek Hye-jin / Mother of a child with a physical disability: Without a professional educational environment and active support from adults, Si-ha's day-to-day life is bound to be precarious.]
The current administration pledged to build 20 new special schools as a national task, but only 1 was added last year.
Experts advise that instead of large schools encompassing both elementary and secondary education, building smaller schools scattered near residential areas is a more realistic alternative.
[Kim Gi-ryong / Professor of Secondary Special Education at Joong부 University: You can downsize special schools, separating elementary programs and middle-high school programs, and make special schools smaller like that.]
Ultimately giving up on a special school and picking up an application for a regular school, one parent shared her desperate feelings.
[Mother of a child with autism spectrum disorder: We take the '4-year-old exam' to go to kindergarten, and the '7-year-old exam' to go to school, simply to receive the learning we truly need...]
(Production Producer: Yoon Taek | Design: Choi Ha-neul, Kang Yun-jung, Hwang Se-yeon)
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