A case study on educational process of the students with special needs and under the protection coverage: Opinions of institutional officials and students

The purpose of this research is to determine the situation regarding the education processes of students with special needs to be evaluated them according to the opinions of institution officials and students. For this purpose, 7 mild mentally retarded students and 1 administrator, 2 guidance teachers, 1 nurse, 1 teacher and 1 care staff working in Antalya Provincial Directorate of Family and Social Services were interviewed in 2019-2022. The data obtained from the research were collected with the 'Semi-Structured Interview Form' developed by the researcher. The interviews with the students were recorded with a voice recorder and the transcripts of the data were analyzed using the 'Content Analysis' method. According to the results obtained as a result of the analysis; It is seen that the students with special needs who are in the formal education age within the scope of protection are happy at school and happy in the extra-curricular activities organized by the school, they interact by communicating with other students and teachers at the school, but they cannot interact fully with the school administrators. The fact that students with special needs are not informed about occupations within the scope of protection causes them to be unable to make future plans regarding occupations.It is concluded that the teachers and administrators working in the schools and the officials working in the Provincial Directorates of Family and Social Services should provide training on the promotion of professions to students with special needs.It is seen that inclusive students with special needs within the scope of protection in crowded classrooms cannot receive adequate education in line with their needs and they experience problems because the classrooms are designed for students with typical development.In the face of these problems experienced by the students, it was found that the school guidance teachers should take a more active role and the school administrators should make arrangements according to the needs of the students with special needs while arranging the schoolrooms and classrooms. Institution officials state that students with special needs should complete at least secondary education, and that students should also study higher education in line with their needs. Diagnosis, assessment and placement in special education should be considered as a whole and it was concluded that the re-diagnosis and placement process should be started without delay by making very good observations of the students who were not diagnosed in accordance with their needs, and the follow-up of the students who were placed in the classrooms for the first time