Special Educator

Restart Center is searching for a Part-Time Special Educator to work within a project funded by the UNHCR and, namely “Educational Support to Children with Special Educational Needs in T5”. This Project seeks to ensure early screening to children with mild to moderate learning difficulties (LD) and Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in public schools in North Lebanon regions, among the refugee and host communities. The project will also seek to improve the learning capacity and behavior of children referred from the Public and semi-private schools, or children who have been out of school for less than one year, with the aim of facilitating their integration into the regular school system; through the provision of special education support and comprehensive specialized services and awareness sessions to parents on the management of children with mild to moderate LD and ADHD. Furthermore, the project will be working with one semi-private school and one orphanage to implement a capacity building program training teacher, supervisors and nurses, while also excepting external referrals that fit the target group criteria.

The selected candidate will have to:

• Operate within one school and one orphanage in North Lebanon, under the supervision of a senior special educator from FISTA North Lebanon, a local NGO for individuals with special needs.
• To coordinate with the projects’ project coordinator, social workers and multidisciplinary teams regarding tracking children’s progress and holding internal case conferences.
• To coordinate with schools and specialists regarding schedules and facilitating awareness sessions and other capacity building activities
• During the first portion of the project, the main tasks will include:

A. Preliminary Screenings:

• observing students inside classrooms, and identifying/screening children who have Special Educational Needs.
• Conducting Meeting with parents and teacher concerning children identified to have LD or ADHD
• Communicating referral form Restarts social workers (if consent is granted), for case management.
• Provide instruction or tips to teachers on how to accommodate and modify academic lessons and instruction in the classroom to help students with Special Educational Needs develop their capacities. These will be provided by the specialists working with the children.
• Track progress and services for referred children on an excel sheet

B. Developing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Individualized Treatment Programs (ITPs) for students

• Coordinating with multidisciplinary member(s) to set IEP treatment goals and objectives for each referred child.
• Conducting meetings with parents and teachers to finalize the IEP results, which will finally address the specific needs, educational goals and objectives, general accommodations, and specialized treatment plans and objectives of each student.
• Working in close coordination with the multidisciplinary teams at Restart Center, to ensure that the students are progressing towards achieving their IEP academic and treatment goals, and to review or revise the initial set IEP
• Working in close coordination with teachers of essential subjects (Arabic, English or French, and Mathematics) on a weekly-basis, mainly to observe whether the IEP classroom accommodations (i.e. design of academic lessons and instruction in the classroom) have been applied and whether students are progressing towards IEP educational goal within the classroom.
• Participating in the Team supervision sessions conducted at the center.
• Attending trainings organized by MEHE and Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD), with regard to utilizing certified and scientific data-collecting tools (screening tools, IEP templates, etc.)
  1. 3. Revising Psychomotor, Speech and Language, and Special education intervention reports and amending them accordingly.

• ­Revise SEN reports (speech and language therapy, psychomotor therapy, and special education intervention) after specialists to ensure they are inline with Restart’s unified Mental Health Assessment Reports.
• Train specialists and hold revision sessions on report writing when applicable.

MAIN SKILLS NEEDED:

• Follows Restart Center policies and by laws.
• Believes in concepts of human rights.
• Respects each team member’s position.
• Able to adapt to special situations or demands from supervisor.
• Good communication skills.
• Ability to work with patients from different backgrounds (cultural, ethnic….).
• Excellent command of English.
• Ability to write reports
• Ability to organize schedules for specialists and call for case conferences when needed.
• Ability to provide information sessions to spread the Education project services with the support of the social workers.