DESPITE efforts to clear up the transitioning process backlog within the education system for students with disabilities, some Portland parents are still worried their children will not be approved for school next year.

The Jamaica Observer has learnt that a delay of processing at Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities (JAID) has forced the education of former students and current students at the Early Stimulation Centre of Excellence in the parish to be in limbo.

Speaking with the Observer on Tuesday, some Portland parents expressed their concern, noting they are not sure their children will be accepted at School of Hope next year.

Deon Evans, who has a 10-year-old son with Down’s syndrome, explained that, although some children have been selected to transition to the School of Hope in January, more effort should be made to have more students being accepted.

She suggested the school needs to be expanded to accommodate more children, which will help to clear the backlog.

“What the supervisor said was that there are a few of them who are in a church hall due to the deplorable condition of the old building used for the school and even before the deplorable condition, there has never been much space. Some children have been on the waiting list for years to go there,” she explained.

“It needs to be a bigger facility, more upgrades, more teachers, just about everything. For a child, especially one with disabilities to be leaving school, and not going into another institution promptly, it is really depressing for them and their parents. Though some have been accepted the other day, it is still not good enough.”

Yvonne Watts, who is the mother of 10-year-old daughter with Down’s syndrome, noted that if she isn’t placed in school next September, it will limit her chances of staying employed, as she will have to stay at home with her daughter.

“Due to COVID-19 she spent quite a bit of time in class two. She just moved over now to class three which is her final class. However, she is 10 years old, so obviously she should have already gone over to School of Hope,” she said.

“We are hoping that for September, she will move on to School of Hope but I am not sure about it because there are so many kids who left already and are still waiting to be placed. It’s as if there is a backlog, so I can’t say if she will get placed next year,” she said.

“I am also hoping that if it doesn’t happen, Early Stimulation, they will still hold her here because it will be really difficult as a single mother for me to keep her at home because I won’t be able to go out to work.”

Meanwhile, Velrona Duckett noted that she has not received much information about her son’s placement, which heightens her worry about the lack of opportunities for children living with disabilities.

“In Jamaica there are not many opportunities for our children or adults with special needs and I don’t think we have come to a point where everyone is unique and not everyone will function in a particular way. So what we need to do is assess their strength and place them in a position to operate with normal citizens,” she said.

Antonica Gunter-Gayle, who is the director of the Early Stimulation Programme which accommodates children 0-6 years with various types of developmental disabilities, explained that the backlog, which was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, was further hampered by limited psycho-education officers who assess the youngsters.

However, she noted that last week approval was granted for approximately 30 children with disabilities to be placed at the School of Hope across the island in January.

“Based on the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a backlog but it is now being sorted out. Since last week, quite a number of our students are now being placed, so students are going out. They have been given placements. There were being placed overtime since we returned to school but I know that an enormous number has been placed last week. Hopefully by now and the second school term, more students will be placed,” she told the Observer.

“You can’t just place a child like that, especially one with special learning needs, so the necessary assessments have to be done for placements. Not much psycho-education officers are doing the assessments and so it takes time. For one child there is two or three sessions needed for assessment, but we are working on it,” she said.