Govt Urged To Extend Aid For Special Needs Kids

A concern group on children with special educational needs (SEN) has called on the government to subsidise the therapy costs for students older than six years.

At the moment, the Social Welfare Department only provides support to families with children under the age of six who require extra help.

The SEN Concern Group said schools only offer academic support to older children and fail to provide social and emotional training. The group said this means parents can only seek assistance from social welfare organisations, which is often too costly for poorer families.

Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung said there is also a “fragmentation” of services, as those for primary students are provided by the Education Bureau, while those for pre-school children are offered by the Social Welfare Department.

"Because of the funding difference, the service patterns are completely different," he said. "And therefore when a student becomes a primary one student, a lot of these rehabilitation support services would vanish."

The government has said it will look into how the support can be strengthened.