Introduction

While great educational reforms are conceived and developed in central government institutions, its implementation often depends on the goodwill of teachers and other professionals at the field. Routinely, the ministry of education relies on law and regulations to enforce new reforms, ignoring the need to persuade and convince those professionals of its importance. This article discusses an example for this conduct.

Children’s Rights and the Right to Participate

25 years ago, Israel ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The convention referred to civic and political rights, which had never before been granted to children: freedom of expression, the right to privacy, and the right to participate in decisions that pertain to their own lives (Melton, 2005a). While children’s nurturance rights are fairly obvious, the right to self-determination is not self-evident and has been the source of numerous disputes (Bohrnstedt, Freeman, & Smith, 1981; Ruck, Keating, Abramovitch, & Koegl, 1998).

To this day, various opinions can be found among parents and professionals, ranging from a conservative approach that views the child as his parents’ property, to the inverse approach, which claims that children should enjoy the same rights as adults do.

Unlike adults, children often need external help to realize their right to participate: they need guidance and thorough preparatory process in order to speak for themselves (Kozminsky, 2004); and they are dependent on adults to give them the opportunity to participate (Melton, 2005b).

My study has analyzed a very specific implementation of the CRC – the fulfillment of the participation right of children in the context of placement decisions.

Pupils’ Participation in Placement Processes in Israel

According to the Special Education Law 5748 (1988), the placement committee is the statutory body that determines which educational framework is most suitable for the child: mainstream, special education classroom, or a special education school. The decision is based on the child’s educational needs and the obligation to place children in the least restrictive environment possible.

The committee is headed by a representative of the local authority and includes a psychologist, a special education supervisor, representatives from the child’s current school and the child’s parents.

In 2005, Special Education Law (Amendment 8) was issued. In the spirit of the CRC it stated that the placement committee will issue an invitation to the pupil as well, and will enable him to state his claims. The law posed no conditions regarding the child’s participation (such as age or severity of the disability). In addition to participating in the deliberation, regulations also required the school staff to conduct a broad and comprehensive preparation process with the child prior to the committee’s meeting (Ministry of Education’s Director General’s Circular 66/8(B) 2006).

There are four main reasons to suspect that the law is not thoroughly implemented: first, child participation is not acceptable in most cultures around the world (Matthews et al., 1999); second, many professionals believe that participation might be harmful to the child's mental health (Weithorn, 1998); thirdly, some committee members feels that adding another voice to the deliberation reduces their own power in the discussion (Melton, 2005b); and finally, professionals may underestimate the opinion of the pupil on the matter – his knowledge is limited, he is handicapped or disabled in some way and he is not objective.   

Summary and the Goal of the Study

Professional's involvement in the implementation of child participation is crucial to its success. Their perceptions on the subject are one of the main factors that may advance or limit it. Therefore, the current study analyzes professional's attitudes towards child participation in placement committees.

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