| Description of good practice: |
Yamaga City implemented DIES project with a focus of utilizing resources in school cluster. Yamaga City Education Board set up the SNE Coordination Committee to implement this DIES project.
Kahoku middle school area is located in the northern end of Kumamoto prefecture. This area was itself a municipal town until being merged into Yamaga City in 2005. This is a mountainous area, with more than half of the area is covered by forest.
In Kahoku middle school area, there is only one elementary school that was merged by three elementary schools in 2013. There were 147 students in the elementary and 80 in middle school in 2015. The newly constructed building of the elementary school is connected with the middle school. This leads to closer collaboration between these two schools. In addition there are three day care centers run by the city. These day care centers are also planned to be merged into one center and will be managed by a welfare cooperation.
RAP staff appointed for Kahoku middle school area, from the beginning of DIES project, was Ms. Suzuki (pseudonym). She assumed the responsibility as the head of parents’ association before at a school for SNE in KP. In addition, she played a role as a member of the education board in another city of KP.
The followings are some activities what Ms. Suzuki had done for strengthening collaboration in this school cluster. Firstly, Ms. Suzuki tried to strengthen collaboration with the Childrearing Support Center. She paved the way to transfer the meeting to the one participated by teachers in elementary and middle schools and herself.
Secondly, Ms. Suzuki was responsible to coordinate the case meeting with day care centers. According to the Child Welfare Law Article 39, the purpose of day care centers is to nurture a child who does not receive any day care. As mentioned before, in Kahoku middle school area, there was no kindergarten but three day care centers. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure smooth transition for children with special needs from day care centers to elementary school through periodical case meetings.
Finallly, Ms. Suzuki was involved in strengthening col- laboration with professionals outside school and when necessary outside the city. For example, she tried to rein- force cooperation with professionals such as KP Northern Support Center for People with Developmental Disabilities and researchers in Kumamoto University in addition to a school for SNE designated to Yamaga city by the education board of KP.
For example, with cooperation with researchers in Kumamoto University, Ms. Suzuki conducted trainings on problem solving through Applied Behavioral Analysis for teachers from elementary and middle schools and day care center staff. Also, in addition to getting suggestions from prefectural Kumamoto School for the Deaf, Ms. Suzuki consolidated information on transition of students with hearing impairments from two adults with hearing impairments arranged by a researcher in Kumamoto University.
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