Meeting with the Early Childhood Division, Ministry of Education

Following the Taub Center’s outreach to government ministries upon the publication of the State of the Nation Report, a two-hour meeting was held with the Early Childhood Division at the Ministry of Education. Participants included Dr. Sarit Silverman, a senior researcher at the Taub Center; Nachum Blass, chair of the Center’s Education Policy Program; Orna Paz, head of the Early Childhood Division; and senior division staff members, with approximately 20 participants in total. Dr. Silverman presented the Center’s findings on the growth of special education in preschools, and the meeting developed into an active discussion. Particular interest was shown in the data on the rise in special education rates, the number of children in separate special education preschools, and the research findings on class size. Following the meeting, Sarit was invited to participate in the division’s strategy committee, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, and considerable interest was expressed in the Center’s follow-up studies, including its research on remaining in preschool for an additional year. The following publications were presented at the meeting: Beyond Capacity (Silverman and Blass), The Preschool Special Education Expansion Problem: Numbers, Trends, and Disparities (Silverman and Blass), and the education chapter of the State of the Nation Report.