Systemic school change of students due to changing demographics or personal factors (change of residence, conflicts) are just some of the reasons why students have to change schools.The transition from one school to another is a stressful change for every student, as they have to adapt to the new school environment as well as the social network (Graham & Hill, 2003).According to Cauley and Jovanovich (2006), changing schools means for a child to adapt to a new, often larger school environment, with new fellow students and teachers, with different academic expectations. At the same time studies have shown that the student`s age, gender and special educational needs also play an important role in adapting to the new school environment (Anderson et al, 2000; Evans et al, 2018; Hebron, 2018; Makin et al, 2017; McCoy et al, 2020).

The effect of changing schools can be manifested in the decline of academic results and abilities, and difficulties in psychosocial coping, which is why it is important to consciously support the students' school change  – to uphold students’ academic performance and social well-being. This is particularly important for students with special educational needs, who have been shown to be at an increased risk for mental and physical coping difficulties.

School- and teaching-related effects, such as teaching strategies, in-school support system, and preparation play an important role in helping students adapt with the changes (Evans et al., 2018). Also, support from parents is relevant for adapting with the situation (Serbin et al., 2013). Thus, positive social network and support system are essential when supporting students’ school transition, especially for students with special educational needs.

The purpose of the study was to find out how students with special educational needs are supported in school change in Estonian schools.

To understand the effects of school transition for students with special educational needs, and the practices of supporting students in this process, management, teachers, support staff, and parents of students with special educational needs were interviewed. In total, 40 people were interviewed. Interviewees associated with 14 different schools – selected via purposive sampling to collect information both from the “transitioning from” and transitioning to” schools – shared their experiences. Semi-structured individual and group interviews were conducted, each interview lasting around 1.5 hours. Interviews were recorded by the permission of interviewees, transcribed, and analysed using qualitative inductive content analysis technique.

The study showed that a lack of support staff, big number of students needing (special) support –, and absence of shared rules and guides, means school transition has not been systematically supported. Support systems are in place in some schools; however, this initiative has come from the schools themselves and can vary in different institutions. Good practices supporting students’ transition involved collecting and sharing information about the students’ strengths and weaknesses so that the school the student transitions to has already an idea, which aspects should be monitored and supported more. At the same time, much of this information sharing between the schools’ specialists come down to parents’ willingness to co-operate, especially when it comes to students with special needs. Events between the different schools and visit days helped to ease the fears of both parents and their children. Support staff highlights transitioned students should be monitored more closely right after the transition. This helps with addressing or preventing problems. Also, parents, teachers, and support staff found it easier for students with special educational needs to adapt in smaller school environments – although smaller classes for students with special educational needs are in place also in bigger schools, there is still a big crowd of people attending school, which might be more anxiety inducing or disturbing for these students. The study showed that there is no systematic approach to supporting school transition nor are there any guidelines for schools’ staff to follow for supporting students in this process. More systematic approach would come in handy especially for students with special educational needs, who might experience the already difficult process more intensely. Furthermore, more systematic and student-center approach would require more support staff.

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