[etni] Ps to my letter on hatamot

Dear Sara:

Keep in mind that I am not a Ministry official, and I am basing myself on
what I have learned in a course to train Racazey - Likuaey Limidah. I refer
you to the following chozer for more details: 

http://www.education.gov.il/mark01/h0032656.htm#TQL


If the job on the pedagogical council was just to rubber stamp whatever is
written in the ivchun, then what would be the point of having a pedagogical
council and empowering it to give hatamot. The pedagogical council is
empowered to give all the hatamot except for Mituam and Oral Testing - based
on the appropriate ivchunim.  Naturally, the pedagogical council should
relate to what is in the ivchun - not just to the recommendations mind you,
but to the entire ivchun. The pedagogical council is also supposed to relate
to input by teachers. For example, the pedagogical council might decide NOT
to give hatamot that appear as recommendations in the ivchun if the teachers
feel that the hatama is not needed by the student, or does not benefit the
student. ON the other hand, if the pedagogical council feels that a certain
hatama (level 1 or 2) which does not appear in the recommendations, but
which teachers can document as a hatama which the student needs and which
relate to the student's learning disability, then, yes, the pedagogical
council is empowered to give the hatama. It is best to provide maximum
documentation in the event that the school is ever asked to justify the
hatamot it gave. (This documentation is supposed to exist for all the
hatamot that the pedagogical council decides on, though that is just in
theory - in practice, due to the "overload" of work, schools tend to just
"copy" the recommendations from the ivchun without documenting that they are
really needed or that they really help the student). The point is that the
principal has to be ready to show that the decision was not made arbitrarily
but based on the real, proven, needs of the student.

Of course in a cases like the one you describe, where we feel a student
needs a hatama which is not written up in the ivchun, we often try to
contact whoever did the ivchun and have him/her add a the specific
recommendation to the student's ivchun. This is because it schools feel most
comfortable being able to quote "the experts" as justification for the
hatamot. However, the ministry recognizes that even a qualified psychologist
will not necessarily know more about a student's needs following a few hours
of testing than a teacher who often has contact with students over the
course of a year or more. So, yes - the input of the pedagogical council is
important. 



Note, the above Chozer states that 5 point students who need to record their
answers in English must get an okay from the local councils. I must say I
wasn't aware of that, and I'm not sure if that directive has already gone
into effect of if it is planned for the future. I suggest you check with
Judy Steiner's office.


 
  


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