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40
No pupils were ascertained as epileptic during 1972 for the second year
in succession. Some children with epilepsy were placed in special schools
but in these cases epilepsy was a secondary handicap and not the main
reason for special education. Epilepsy is not, generally speaking, incompatible
with ordinary school placement, and wherever possible such children,
with the goodwill of teachers, are encouraged to remain at a normal school.
MALADJUSTED PUPILS
In Day Unit for non-communicating children 10
In Day Special Schools 26
In Residential Special Schools 105
Awaiting Placement 34
The number of children ascertained as maladjusted was exactly the same
as last year - 59. There is no indication of the hoped for return to the figures
for 1970, and previous years, when the average was 15 to 20 children. Indeed,
the position is quite a lot worse as was indicated in the opening remarks to
this section of the Report, for the number of children awaiting placement has
more than doubled from 15 last year to 34 this year. The latter is a very depressing
statistic as the Borough Special Day School has only been open for a
year and a term, and already almost twice as many disturbed children as ever
before had not been found places in suitable schools at the end of the year.
The Unit for Autistic Children, as the following school report points out,
is also full. The desirable number of places in this Unit is not determined
yet as it is not certain how many of the children will transfer to other placements
eventually. It is, however, clear that there are not enough places in
the Unit for the needs of the Borough.