Guest Post: International School Inclusive Education Options Need to Expand

We founded nonprofit Parents Alliance for Inclusion in 2023 because parents of neurodivergent and disabled children face a lot of challenges finding international schools. At registration, we have an optional survey to collect data on our community’s experience. Early trends are:

• 40% of parents have had to change their child’s international school — or go home for schooling — due to insufficient support services at an international school their child attended;
• 33% have always been served well by the international schools their children have attended;
• and 20% of parents have homeschooled their children at some point due to insufficient support services, or insufficient capacity, at the international schools in their location.

My Background

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I recently wrote a 2 page article for the International Admissions Bulletin on my own family’s 30 month search for an international school, anywhere in the world, that our two autistic and ADHD children could graduate from. 

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In my nonprofit work and parenting, I bring understanding of both sides of the table.

On the parent side, I’ve been my own children’s at-home parent for 7 years. I started a parent support group at my children’s previous school for the parents of all the neurodivergent and disabled children at the school that had over 100 members. I have been an active member of the 1400 member family global parent support community Expat Kids Learning Differently since 2018.

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On the educator side, my wife has been an international school teacher for a decade. I have a Masters in Teaching. I attend conferences and trainings with educators to both advocate for parents, and to understand educators.

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Academic Research

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In our advocacy, Parents Alliance for Inclusion aims to fill gaps in data and thinking. In summary, research shows:

• academic outcomes stay the same or get better when neurodivergent and disabled children are included well.
• social-emotional learning improves when neurodivergent and disabled children are included well.
• schools with good social-emotional learning have better academic outcomes.

Durlak et al in a 2011 meta-analysis found that when social-emotional learning in schools is done well, academic outcomes are likely to improve by up to 11%.

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Roldán et al in a 2021 qualitative study found added value for academic and social-emotional learning including:

• “Sharing learning activities with students with SEN in interactive learning environments triggers an additional cognitive effort for typically developing children when they try to explain themselves to their peers with SEN.” [SEN = Special Education Needs in their research.]
• “In addition to the transformation of thoughts, attitudes and the acknowledgment of others’ abilities and difficulties, engaging in learning interactions with peers with special education needs helps to develop a series of social skills.”

Szumski et al’s 2017 meta-analysis of studies encompassing 4.8 million students found no negative impacts, and marginally positive academic outcomes, for neurotypical children when neurodivergent and disabled children are included in schools. Kart and Kart in 2021 are among those that echo Szumski et al’s findings. 

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International School Parents Need Better Odds

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The U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates the number of adults that are disabled in some way (neurodivergence or physical disability) is now 28.7%. Excluding neurodivergent and disabled children from international school education is a failure to educate our future global citizens about 28.7% of the global community they will live in.

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The data that 40% of families change international schools or go home, and 20% of families homeschool at some point, is too high if those trends hold as we get more data. Part of the trend, and the reason my family had to change schools, is the inclusion cliff in international schools as children reach secondary school. There is a lack of diploma pathway variety to finishing high school. 

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The IB school we had to leave at the end of last year told us in a meeting in October of our last school year that there was only 1 of 138 Diploma Program (DP) students taking IB DP Math Studies. Math Studies is the least complicated academic math option for doing DP Math to still be eligible for the diploma. The point of saying only 1 in 138 students took IB Math Studies was to say to us, with our own children that might need that course in 7 and 8 years respectively: there’s “no demand” for this course or an alternative.

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The idea that there is “no demand” for inclusive high school options is a fable. Every year on Expat Kids Learning Differently there are families relocating, often moving house and ending international careers by force, because they can no longer find an international school to support their child as their children get older. By the same token, every year on Expat Kids Learning Differently there are families rejoicing — and receiving virtual high fives — that their child managed to get their international school high school diploma (and then other families expressing regret at the mental health outcome of pushing their child through the rigor of the international school high school diploma they received, and receiving virtual hugs).

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In the same October 2023 meeting with our former school we were told: 

• in the first three years of secondary school, our children would need more (1-to-1) support than they received in elementary school;
• and that the school does not offer that support in the last four years of high school.

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Support services in secondary international schools have four strategies for reducing demand before students arrive at the years of their IB DP, IGCSE or AP studies:

• reduce quantity and/or quality of support services offered in secondary school (compared to elementary years);
• express that support services are “more complicated” to provide in secondary school due to the schedule with multiple content subjects;
• add support in a way that reduces student independence, then say the students are not independent enough to continue;
• and (even in non-selective schools) setting academic benchmarks to remain in the school by not offering alternative pathways for students.

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Schools that market themselves as non-selective are also marketing their IB results, IGCSE results, AP results, and where their students go to university. Schools need to market a spectrum of success that embraces all children’s success on the pathway to adulthood as valuable.

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We know there is demand for more inclusive international schools and we are collecting the data to make our case. We know there is the research that shows education outcomes for all students are better when international schools — and all schools — are more inclusive, and we are aggregating that data on our website and highlighting some of the best research briefly in our Community Hub section called “Pithy Quotes from Peer-Reviewed Research”.

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Tips

• research shows 15 to 20% of students in a school receiving a variety of student support services adds education value for 100% of students.
• student support services need to be vertically aligned from kindergarten through high school diplomas the same way content areas from math to literacy are vertically aligned.
• international schools were founded on the principle of providing education to all families living away from their home country and Parents Alliance for Inclusion is voicing for a cohort of those families that we need better provisions, there is demand, and it’s time for supply to catch up.

Connect:

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Parents Alliance for Inclusion’s website.

Jon Springer on LinkedIn.

Parents Alliance for Inclusion on LinkedIn. 

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