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A New Non-Profit Organization in Israel
Classroom sizes in Israel are exploding! Classes have as many as 40 students in it with only one teacher! The educational system in Israel is in a crisis and the children on the periphery are most effected. Teachers just don’t have the time or energy to adapt lessons to kids who are at risk for falling through the cracks.
Children with learning disabilities or attention disorders sit in regular classes, day after day, and can not show themselves or their teachers how talented and bright they really are. These are students who have the potential to “reach for the stars” but will not succeed because the system does not provide for their needs.
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 Educational Crisis in Israel
The average Israeli school only receives funding for 10 hours a week of remedial support for all the learning disabled children in the entire school. Professional support, remedial hours and appropriate programming for students with learning disabilities is severely inadequate. Even the best teacher can not afford the time to design and implement a modified program for these children when she has to manage a class bursting at the seams.
Our immigrant cultural in Israel has produced many bilingual children and students whose first language is not Hebrew. When a learning disability does exist, the bilingualism compounds the problem and remedial help is even more essential. Too often, children with learning disabilities from non-native Hebrew speaking families go undiagnosed for long periods of time. Teachers attribute their difficulties as being related to the fact that Hebrew is not the child’s native language and then the actual learning problem goes untreated.
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Partners with Parents
Partners with Parents R”A was established in 2007, as an outgrowth of Partners with Parents, Educational Consulting Services, a boutique company serving more than 100 clients in the Greater Beit Shemesh and Modiin communities since 2003. Our goal in establishing a non-profit organization is to provide for children with learning disabilities, what the system does not. We feel that the right to an appropriate education should not be a privilege reserved only for families that can afford to pay privately.
Our work is vital because the situation in our schools for learning disabled children is dismal. They are often expected to learn in overcrowded classrooms by improperly trained teachers and with minimal remedial or therapeutic support. We want to fill a void in our educational system - one which is ever widening.
We are the only non profit organization in Israel whose primary purpose is to actively work to help learning disabled kids in regular education truly shine! We provide services and support to children who otherwise will not get help; because unlike the special education system in the United States, Israel is allowed to deny services to qualified students due to budget constraints.
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Who We Help
Currently we service Anglo immigrant families, whose learning disabled children are either bilingual or second language learners. Our long-term goal however is to expand our services to other multilingual populations, where the risk is the same and need equally great. At the present time the Israeli Ministry of Education does not recognize the unique needs of this population, and therefore does not provide specialized services or support for them in school.
Our clients are the parents of these children. We are partners with parents. Only a partnership between parents, professionals and schools will help these children succeed in school and have a good chance to become happy and independent adults.
Our clients are school age children (grades 1-12) with learning disabilities who learn in regular education classes or are in special education with partial mainstreaming. They struggle with various learning disabilities including:
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What We Do
Our non profit organization will provide high quality services to our clients - services which have four years of development behind them. We help:
- Parents who want to be more effective and proactive.
We offer private consultations to help parents put the pieces together. We fight for their children's educational rights and needs through our educational advocacy program. We coordinate school meetings and an effective educational program. We provide parent coaching so that they can better help their children, as they work through their personal difficulties.
- Children with learning disabilities who are missing vital skills
Our special education teachers provide private remedial lessons in reading, writing, math, study and organizational skills, to children with learning disabilities and AD/HD. We offer Cognitive social skills training in groups and individual lessons to teach social skills to children and teens.
- Olim who are afraid to make aliyah with a child with special education needs:
We help potential Olim understand the special education services available in the Israeli school system. Our pre- aliya assistance organizes placement and services for their children before they arrival in Israel. Our guidance for new olim helps them once they have arrived.
- Schools who do not have proper staff or funding to help children with learning disabilities:
Our educational consultants speak and meet regularly with guidance counselors, homeroom teachers and remedial teachers to help build and implement an individualized educational program for each client.
At Partners with Parents, our goal is to create an active partnership between parents, professionals, schools and the child to find creative solutions!
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How We Make a Difference
Read about just some of the ways that our work has made a difference.
Rachel was a fourth grader who had been given Ritalin for inattentiveness. Rachel’s mother came to us distraught and confused because she knew that her daughter was struggling but had not improved with the medication. As a result of our work together Rachel was correctly diagnosed with dyslexia and CAPD!
Yehuda spent the first two years in Israel either changing schools or staying at home for months on end. Our educational consultant worked with Yehuda’s parents and school, month after month, for an entire year - advocating on his behalf and creating an individualized educational program in his self contained class. Yehuda is now learning in the same class for the second year and his parents now know how to represent his needs.
Rafi, a dyslexic boy who made aliyah in second grade was reading Hebrew on a first grade reading level in seventh grade. After a year and a half of intensive remedial work, Rafi is now willing to try to tackle his eighth grade history textbook.
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Our Immediate Plans
Our immediate plan as a non profit organization is to expand our existing services so that we can help more children by:
Setting up scholarships for:
- Educational advocacy
- Olim services
- Social skills training.
Creating a virtual drop –in center
- by phone
- by email
- our monthly e-newsletter
- our informative website
Click Here to get more information about our plans.
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How YOU Can Help
The services we provide are costly because our staff works as a team on each and every case. Many hours are spent “behind the scenes”, brainstorming, discussing and planning how to best help each and every client.
Your donation will enable us to provide our comprehensive and quality services to children, who need our help, but can not afford the services of an entire team of professionals.
Your donation will enable us to provide information and educational programs to our communities.
Your donation will enable us to expand and plan for the future!
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©2006 Partners with Parents, Educational Consulting Services, Gayle Shimoff.
All rights reserved. All images and information may be used only with written approval from Partners with Parents. Contact us for details.
Partners with Parents office: 17/1 HaChavatzelet Street, Beit Shemesh, 99590, Israel, 972-2-999-4817
Designed and developed by PBCS Technology
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