Identification of the personnel views on the studies of referral, placement, and monitoring in CRC at the diagnostic proccess of individuals with special needs

The purpose of this study was to identify the opinions of Counseling and Research Center (CRC) personnel who study on referral, placement and monitoring in the diagnostic process of individuals with special needs. The sample of the study consisted of interviews with eleven personnel (two interviews were pilot samples) who work in two CRC in B, Istanbul and in A, Istanbul. The data of the research were collected with semi-structured interview method and analyzed with content analysis. Analysis showed that the educational objectives that were constructed after the diagnosis did not involve all the individuals with special needs and also parents and students attend the diagnosis process as much as they can. It was also noticed that some personnel found special education evaluation council insufficient while all of them were agreed that special education services are totally insufficient. Furthermore, study has found that the factors such as the residence of parents, the performance of student and the least restrictive environment were taken into consideration while deciding the referral. Study also showed that some students were not able to attend the formal education even though the placement decision were made for them, the educational options for students with special needs in early childhood were insufficient and there is a lack of classroom and teacher resources in the placement of highly disabled students. CRC personnel stated that they have difficulty about medical reports, the physical conditions of CRCs should be improved and the functions of CRCs should be differentiated. Besides, CRC personnel claimed that renewal of medical reports every year by parents creates an obstacle and school teachers are not sufficiently qualified on special education. When the findings of research were considered, some significant deficiencies observed in the process of referral, placement and monitoring of individuals with special needs. It draws attention that most deficiencies are observed in the process of placement which is the period of students start school.