Collaboration between Admissions Offices and Learning Support Departments in inclusive schools: The experience of the International School of Brussels

Clearly, the challenge is greater in inclusive schools, where Admissions teams learn to manage the tensions of moral purpose and the practical realities of numbers, fiscal responsibility and quality of instruction. [...]what exactly is an inclusive school? ISB's definition of inclusion has been adopted by NFI and reads: 'Inclusive schools successfully serve a managed number of students representing the full range of learning differences: mild, moderate, intensive needs and those of the exceptionally able.'1 Of course a primary assumption is that the school has a common understanding of the degree of optimal support students will require, has a system for collecting and tracking this data, and has resources and structures to ensure that they are able to serve the students they admit. An inclusive spirit permeates hiring of faculty and staff, budgeting for resources, appraisal, professional development, curriculum design, technology integration, communications, sports and co-curricular programming...this list goes on including every facet of the school to enable a true culture of inclusion. [...]our collective work has taught us that effective inclusive admissions are best achieved when the mission and value of inclusion are centre stage, and admissions and learning support faculty collaborate regularly and profoundly. When prospective students' learning support needs are detected at the earliest stage possible, it allows for the greatest opportunities for successes and this is enhanced by communication and relationship building with families sharing a common voice and message. [...]using real-time data, including data on internal growth of learning support numbers, will help you maintain managed...