Entry Testing and the Overrepresentation of Romani ... - UR Research

R48PITFALLS AND BIASCompulsory schooling in Hungary begins at the earliest at the age of six and at the latest at the age of eight(Article 6.2). Kindergarten is the first year of compulsory schooling, but a child may attend at the age of five.A medical clearance is required to enroll in kindergarten, but a school readiness examination is not a requirementfor enrollment. Once a child enters school, if the head teacher notices that a child might be having difficultyperforming, the teacher may refer a child to the Educational Counseling Service to assess the child’s readiness forschool, particularly if the child has not attended kindergarten before the age of compulsory schooling (Act onPublic Education, Article 6.4.a and Decree 14/1994, §22.4). On the basis of a preliminary examination, the EducationalCounseling Service establishes that a child has special educational needs or struggles with “adaptive, learning,or behavioral difficulties” and prepares an expert opinion on school enrollment for a child (Article 35.4). In addition,the Educational Counseling Service refers a child to the Rehabilitation Committee for testing (Act on PublicEducation, Article 30.8). Throughout the assessment process, the teachers engage in continuous monitoring ofthe child, through observations and assessment, and prepare a report for the Rehabilitation Committee to assistin their assessment (Decree 14/1994, §13.6–9). Once the Rehabilitation Committee performs medical, pedagogical,and psychological assessments on the child and determines that the child has a disabling condition, theRehabilitation Committee then transfers the responsibility for the child to the Educational Counseling Service,which provides pedagogical, psychological, developmental, and therapeutic supports, support for educators,and facilitates communications with families. Based on the findings of the Educational Counseling Service and theRehabilitation Committee, either entity can recommend that the child remain in kindergarten for an additionalyear (Act on Public Education, Article 24.5).Another recommendation that the Educational Counseling Service and Rehabilitation Committee can make isfor a child determined to have special educational needs to be allowed to enter the first grade as a “preparatoryyear” as set out in Article 70 of the Act on Public Education. In this year, the child attends the first grade, but isexempted from class evaluation and assessment and an “individual development plan” must be prepared (Act onPublic Education, Article 30.9). 13 Required for all pupils with special educational needs, the individual developmentplan is prepared by the special education teacher or therapist and should include, depending on the child’s disablingcondition, items related to intellectual, hearing, vision, motor or physical, speech, or psychological development(Decree 14/1994, §8.6). For children attending the preparatory year, advancement to the next grade dependson recommendations by the teacher and the Educational Counseling Service and/or Rehabilitation Committee,with the individual development plan specifying academic areas in which the pupil should catch up with his orher classmates by the end of grade four (Act on Public Education, Article 70.9).13 The “individual development plan” is similar to what is termed in other countries’ legislation as the “individualized education plan,”“individualized education program,” or “statement of special needs.”