HK's special schools stay open amid lockdown

While much of the world remains locked down amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, life carries on at more than 20 schools for students with special educational needs in Hong Kong.

More than 300 of about 57,000 such students in the city continue to live at their schools, and the only thing that seems to have changed is that the teachers and caregivers all wear face masks.

Fong Sheung-wan, principal of Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School in Tai Po district, conceded that the situation is stressful for staff members, but said it would be much worse for the children if the security of familiarity were taken away.

"We know we can't give into the stress. The students need our help," Fong said.

The children still sleep in their dormitories, attend classes and play with their friends during the day.

Initially, Hong Kong's other educational establishments, from kindergartens to secondary schools and even some special institutions, closed indefinitely.

However, students at some regular schools began returning to classes on May 27.

Special schools that offer residential services, such as Fong's, remain open for children in need.

Hong Kong has 60 government-aided schools for children with SEN, who mostly have physical or intellectual impairments.

Fong's school provides services for 60 students with severe intellectual disabilities, although 30 returned home after the virus emerged in the city in late January.

Most of those who have stayed have specific needs. Some are unable to speak, while others are unable to walk in a normal way. They need help with almost everything: eating; showering; using the toilet; and even sleeping.

Many have complex medical issues. Some have to be fed through tubes, while many have weakened natural immunity owing to chronic and unstable health.

Vulnerabilities

SEN students are quite vulnerable, especially to large-scale outbreaks of illness, Fong said.

That helps to explain why life at the school has to carry on in the face of every crisis, from typhoons to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003.

Compared with other challenges, the coronavirus outbreak is extra tough because of its lengthy duration.

The risk of infection on the campus is high. Dozens of students live together around the clock in a relatively confined space and they are in close contact with staff members, who come to help every day.

The school requires staff members to wear face masks all the time at work and to change them frequently. Meanwhile, all the places visited by students are disinfected every day.

All students are required to adhere to social distancing guidelines during group exercises, and they have been separated into two groups that alternate in undertaking regular activities.

The students' temperatures are measured six times a day, while their activities are closely monitored, including the amount of water they drink and even how often they turn over in bed.

Staff shortages are a chronic problem at SEN schools, especially places like Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School, where some students have severe intellectual impairments and always require caregivers with specific expertise and a great deal of patience. Now, things have become even tougher.

Sixteen "house parents" are responsible for the 30 students, and the most severely affected children need more than one caregiver. Dining and bathing times can become nightmares, so cleaners are sometimes drafted in to help.

There's no stable supply of protective gear. The school has to compete with everybody else in the city for sanitizers, disinfectants and medical alcohol. In February, panic-buying of items－especially toilet rolls－left the school with just two weeks' supply.

Face masks remain the most urgent requirement. The 80 staff members use 150 a day, but the supply is limited.

Collective ordeal

Leung Wing-hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Special Schools Council－an organization that represents all such schools in the city－said the situation at Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School is being repeated in local schools.

According to Leung, more than 20 special schools that provide dormitory services for students have maintained operations during the pandemic.

Some dormitories for children with severe intellectual impairments have retained 70 to 80 percent of their residents, while the others have kept 20 to 30 percent.

Leung said that in addition to shortages of staff members and protective gear－problems faced by all special schools－some establishments have extra challenges.

During normal times, most students at residential schools return home for weekends and spend the Spring Festival holiday with their families.

This year, some children left the city during Spring Festival, which meant the schools had to implement additional quarantine measures when they returned.

Some schools were affected by the government's border control restrictions, which are intended to contain the spread of the disease.

Since Feb 8, most people entering Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland have been required to stay home under a mandatory 14-day quarantine regulation.

Some students whose parents live on the mainland have not been able to return and have been forced to remain at their family homes.

That presents a special problem. Some of the students need medicines that are hard to obtain on the mainland.

Express companies refuse to handle cross-border deliveries of medication, so schools have had to depend on parents who need to visit the mainland or ask cross-border truck drivers to deliver medication to students, Leung said.

Parental challenges

Though the outbreak poses a collective ordeal for schools, families have been left with individual problems on top of everything else.

Wong Hoi-man has two sons with autism. One, a 12-year-old whose intelligence is unimpaired, studies at a regular school, while the other, an 8-year-old with mild intellectual disability, attends a special school.

All the city's non-tertiary schools suspended classes in late January, and the resumption date has been pushed back several times.

The issue is the same for every school-age child, but it is especially troubling for SEN children. They need more time to adapt to change, Wong said, noting that the problem is most evident in her younger son.

The boy, who has been stuck at home for several months, loses his temper frequently, cries a lot and sometimes hits himself.

While his older brother is taking online lessons, the younger boy often shouts or creates other disturbances.

That makes it hard for his brother, because if he misses something during a lesson he has no way of catching up later.

Most parents don't even know how they are supposed to help their children at home. Without a timetable or dedicated learning environment, the children have difficulty concentrating.

Wong tries to help her sons by setting timetables, which she makes them follow. She does what she can, hoping she can teach the boys something by playing games with them.

She acknowledges that she's no teacher, but she hopes her efforts to adapt toys and even the furniture into learning tools will at least provide some progress.

She is concerned about the possible long-term effect the situation will have on the boys' physical and mental health, and is also concerned that they may take a long time to reacclimatize when classes resume.

Impact on therapy

Therapeutic services for SEN children are among the many nonemergency medical services that have been suspended during the lockdown.

Leung said things have to be that way because the services require close contact between therapists and children, which poses a higher risk of infection. However, he warned about the consequences of suspending the services.

The therapies－which involve physical coordination, communication skills and management of emotions－are meant to help the young people adapt to their world in the hope they will be able to live independently someday.

A lengthy suspension may cause setbacks, meaning even more time will be required for the students to adapt, Leung said. He added that it is especially difficult for final year students because most of them will soon be entering the workforce.

He said schools will intensify training when classes resume, which will mean inviting therapists to visit more frequently and prolong the treatment. He hopes parents will play their part and not simply rely on therapists and schools to make the difference.

Parents can help with simple exercises to improve balance and physical strength, he said. However, he has noticed that despite the video guidance given by schools, many parents seem troubled.

"They might be concerned that they can't do it well, or simply feel it is too troublesome to take the time. But they have to realize that they are the ones closest to their children, whether there's a pandemic or not," Leung said.