Characteristics of School and Vocational Counseling for Students with Special Educational Requirements

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to bring forth the importance of parents’ implication in the educational process of children with special needs by emphasizing the need of a family–school partnership. Educational and vocational counseling for students in special education imposes the need for efficient inclusion, which requires a commitment to integrating persons with disabilities both in school and society. In other words, the family of a child with special needs is involved in the role of mediator between the child—who may have difficulty adapting to interpersonal relationships—and the social environment, including the community to which they belong and sometimes even strangers. The role of parents as educational partners represents direct implications in the educational environment in which they can influence certain decisions that follow along the progress of the child’s education, collaborating with the school in a concrete way and taking managerial functions within the school. KEYWORDS: school-family partnership, special educational needs, differential diagnosis, mental deficiency, counseling of students with special educational needs-CES