Luckily many of the readers of the English version might not face the problem that we do here in Germany:
J. is 4.5 years. Therefore we start thinking of his future schools.
From many sides we were told that a specialized school for mentally handicapped would be right for him.Classes there have only up to 8 kids and 2 teachers who have attended special courses on handicapped schooling.
This sounds good at first - but those schools separate handicapped kids from the healthy ones.
Right now J. is in pre-school together with "normal" and handicapped kids and really benefits from the others.He learns a lot from the kids. We are afraid that he does not have that opportunity on a special school anymore.
In Germany there are about 400000 kids with a special needs at school, many of those are immigrants or come from immigrant families. 85% of those kids go to special schools.
77% of the kids leave school without any certificate of secondary education.
They do not have many chances to find an employment after school.
Other European countries go another way: In Spain, Italy and Scandinavia almost all kids join regular schools. They get support there. In UK it's still 60%.
But also Germany has signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Because of that Germany will have to invent an inclusive educational system! (§24). Persons with disabilities must be allowed to participate an inclusive, high quality and free of charge class and primary and secondary schools. Only an inclusive educational system is free of discrimination.
Students must be supportet to get the best education possible.
There are parental organisations fighting for their kids' rights in Germany. But it is still a hard way to go!
Do you have the option of putting him in an inclusive school? I'm torn - on one hand, a school for kids with special needs would insure that he receives appropriate learning opportunities but an inclusive school might be more motivating and engaging for him. I suppose it all depends on his level of impairment though I suspect mild to moderate intellectual impairment would benefit more from an integrated school (this of course is just based on my non-expert assumptions).
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