The Support Needs of the Parents on Strengthen the Compulsory Education Right for Young Children with Special Education Needs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the measures to strengthen the right of the compulsory education for early childhood special education by identifying parents’ demands for supports. Seven hundreds and fifty seven parents of children with special needs were recruited from 17 provinces in Korea. The survey were conducted to collect data and the frequency data analysis were used. The findings of the study were as follows. First, in terms of parents perception on the care settings and the education settings, the parents preferred to be enrolled their child into public educational settings rather than care settings to provide inclusive education to their child. Second, parents were aware of operation requisite for compulsory education that teachers should have teaching certification issued by the Ministry of Education, that the chief of the organization should have education director certification issued by the Ministry of Education, and that their children should be enrolled in public preschool. To improve compulsory educational practices, special teachers should be placed at preschool where special class were setup, after school care-givers who majored special education should be placed, and therapy support service providers should be hired at Supporting Center for Special Education. Based on the results of this study, the revision of the law and the direction of policy establishment related to the compulsory education support for young children with special education needs were discussed and suggested.