2_2 EDUCATION COUNCELING FACILITIES (ECF)

MŠ, ZŠ, SŠ

Integrating children into the educational system is the goal of school counselling facilities (školská poradenská zařízení or ŠPZ), here to support both children and their teachers. For most pupils the specific facility is called a Pedagogical-Psychological Counselling Centre (Pedagogicko-psychologická poradna or PPP).

AVAILABILITY:
The services of an ŠPZ are intended for pupils at these stages of education:

  • Kindergarten
  • Primary school
  • Secondary school
SCHOOL COUNSELLING FACILITIES (ŠPZ):
Pedagogical-Psychological Counselling Centre (PPP) – offers a wide variety of services to children from a preschool to secondary school level, provides support and guidance to schools.
Special Education Centre (SPC) – works in a similar way to a PPP, provides support to children with more severe disabilities (physical or mental).
Educational Care Centre (Středisko výchovné péče or SVP) – offers activities for children with problematic behaviour and their parents.
  • Counselling centre services (and all the counselling facilities) are free of charge for all pupils.
  • A counselling centre cannot refuse to provide services to any person looking for them.
  • A parent must make the appointment for their child. This can be at the school’s recommendation. The school will provide the child with a so-called “school questionnaire” prior to the evaluation. Due to the large workload of the centres it can take up to 4 months to get an appointment, so it’s best to act right away.
  • An evaluation can take up to 3 hours.

The child and their legal guardian are given an appointment for examination as soon as possible. The child is examined by the centre’s counsellors – psychologists and special education specialists. The evaluation includes an interview with the parent and child and tests of acquired skills and learning abilities. It may reveal other potential problems with the child, such as learning disorders, attention deficit disorders etc.

In order for the examination to serve its purpose, for pupils with a different first language, it is necessary to make use of the services of an interpreter to translate the instructions and assignments for the child and ensure communication between the parents and counsellors.

! Within a month at the latest, the counselling center will issue a report from the evaluation and a recommendation for the school. The report is more comprehensive and will be provided exclusively to the parents. The recommendation contains advice on how to work with the child and the support measures that need to be taken, it contains no mention of a specific diagnosis nor details about the child’s particular condition.The counselling centre’s recommendation is binding for the school. It automatically entitles the school to receive funding for the recommended measures.

USEFUL LINKS:

Preschool Education, Support Measures

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