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Course SBG1
School Readiness
and School Placement of an Internationally Adopted Child
Instructor Dr. Boris Gindis
Since 1990, over 180, 000 orphans
born overseas were adopted in the United States, and now many
school districts have students who are internationally adopted
children. They differ significantly from other English language
learners and often require a lot of remediation. This work
becomes frustrating to both parents and school personnel if
the opportunity for early remediation is lost due to lack
of understanding and experience with school placement and
support for these children.
This course addresses the issues
of school readiness and proper academic placement of international
adoptees.
The understanding of these issues is necessary
to ensure shared efforts of
parents, educators, and adoption
specialists to meet the needs of internationally adopted post-institutionalized
children.
| Unit
1: What is school
readiness? |
- The issue of school readiness in contemporary
American education.
- The specificity of readiness issues in international
adoptees.
- The age of adoption and risk factors for
school readiness.
- Assignment to unit 1.
| Unit
2: How do we estimate
school readiness of an internationally adopted child? |
- Criteria of readiness for a child.
- Readiness checklist for an internationally
adopted child.
- Criteria of readiness for a school.
- Readiness checklist for a school.
- School readiness issues or special education
needs?
- Special education placement checklist.
- Assignment to unit 2.
| Unit
3: School placement
of international adoptees |
- Current practices in the academic
placement of international adoptees.
- Arguments for age-appropriate placement.
- Arguments against age-appropriate placement.
- The opinion of the international adoption
experts.
- Assignment to unit 3.
| Unit
4: How an initial
screening or full psycho-educational assessment can help
the child's school placement? |
- Screening and assessment as the basis for
educational decision making.
- Assignment to unit 4.
| Unit
5: Initial psycho-educational
screening of an internationally adopted child |
- Why should schools do the initial psycho-educational
screening of the child?
- When should schools do the initial psycho-educational
screening of the child?
- What professionals should participate?
- What are the tests and procedures for screening
of internationally adopted children of different age groups?
- What is the outcome of the initial psycho-educational
screening?
- Assignment to unit 5.
| Unit
6: Full psycho-educational
assessment of an internationally adopted child |
- Why may a full psycho-educational
assessment of an internationally adopted child be necessary?
- What professional
should do a full assessment? The role of an independent
evaluator.
- What tests and procedures are used for a
full psycho-educational assessment of an internationally
adopted child?
- What is the outcome of a full assessment?
- Assignment to unit 6.
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