"Please Help My Child Grow Up to Be a Tax-Paying Adult"... A Mother's Desperate Appeal [News Story]

The desire of parents to provide a better educational environment for their children is universal. However, the schools that the parents met by the production team were not so-called prestigious schools. Seonyul's family relocated their livelihood from Seoul to Goseong, Gangwon Province, last year to enroll in a special school. This was because there was no special school in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, where Seonyul, who has autism spectrum disorder and an intellectual disability, could attend. Although they hurriedly moved to Gangwon Province and submitted an application, they had to spend days in anxiety until the assignment results came out. This was because Sokcho Cheonghae School, where Seonyul applied, selected only 6 incoming students, but applicants far exceeded that number.

Such difficulties are not experienced by Seonyul's family alone. One family that moved from Gyeonggi Province to Jeju signed a lease on a house solely through phone calls and filled out application forms just to get into a special school. Special schools were that desperate. Every parent met by the production team unanimously said, "Getting into a special school is harder than getting into Seoul National University."
 
For children with severe physical disabilities who find it difficult even to attend school and live a daily life without a special school, the doors of admission remain narrow. Siha, a 7-year-old scheduled to enter elementary school next year, has congenital schizencephaly and cerebral palsy. He cannot sit or walk on his own. However, Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, where Siha lives, has neither a daycare center dedicated to children with disabilities nor a special school. Siha attends a daycare center in Bucheon that takes 20 minutes by car every day. Moving is also not easy due to the burden of medical bills and housing prices. Baek Hye-jin, his mother, even submitted a desperate appeal to the Office of Education out of fear that Siha might not be assigned to a special school. All the mother wants is for her child to safely attend school and receive a basic public education. It was a very ordinary yet natural wish to raise her child as "an adult who pays taxes."
 
While the school-age population is declining, the number of students eligible for special education is growing rapidly. However, special schools and special classes are failing to keep pace with that growth rate. As a result, parents uproot their lives to find a school their children can attend, or postpone admission if they are not assigned to a special school. Experts agree that it is urgent to expand special schools and special classes in line with the demand for special education, and to prepare fundamental measures so that educational opportunities do not vary by region. They emphasize that finding a school that suits a child should no longer be the sole responsibility of the child and their parents.

This week, SBS looks back at the reality created by the shortage of special schools through the stories of families who had to uproot their lives to find special schools, and examines what needs to change to protect the basic educational rights of children.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.