Together We Win – But Disabled Children Are Excluded by the Ministry of Education?

The right-wing government obviously wants to harm disabled children and make the lives of parents with disabled children more miserable.

The Ministry of Education cancelled a tool which really worked well. Parents who brought their disabled kids on their own to the school got reimbursement for the costs of transport. They got a very modest monthly payment of between 980 and 1.800 NIS.

The often unreliable taxis get 100 NIS per kid/per day. To add the costs of the steward who has to attend to the disabled children. That means about 3.000 to 4.000 per kid/month. All cost estimates are estimates based on our own experience and research.

But besides the costs there are three basic thoughts on why parents should have a choice:

1. This socialist harassment which determines how kids have to be brought to the school has to stop. Let parents take their children to school themselves. Let the parents decide. Furthermore, it’s better for the children.

2. It is better for the children and parents. Why? Many of the children are on the autistic spectrum. They usually react very badly to changes. It is now common practice that a taxi rarely arrives on time. Often you have to wait 20 minutes. And then up to six children are picked up. So the first child has a journey to school of two hours or more. The same applies to the journey back. The children are exposed to unnecessary stress and there is less time for the parent-child relationship. The often hair-raising driving style of many taxis can be seen every day on the streets of Israel.

‘Shavim‘ wrote: “Although the directive was a source of relief for parents who encountered serious problems with their children’s transportation, the Ministry of Education recently issued a new directive that states that starting from the next school year (2015) this arrangement will cease, and this even though Israel is still at war. “Whenever a parent makes a request to the authority to arrange transportation for their child, the authority is obliged to provide this answer, but from the year 2015 (the next school year) this answer will be stopped” – according to the letter issued by the Ministry of Education.“

3. The weakest ones are harmed. That is a betrayal of Jewish values to press the needy. Stop this. It is wrong. This is not ‘together’ if we leave the weakest ones behind.