Rabbi Shimon Levy, CEO of Seeach Sod, led the tour and presented the guests with the Haredi student's circle of needs, which continues past graduation and necessitates new adaptations upon entering the subsequent welfare programs.
The guests visited the preschools and daycare centers and discerned the differences between the different types of schools servicing children and teens with varying levels of cognitive impairments, autism, and learning/behavioral challenges.
The Special Education Headquarters members also wanted to familiarize themselves with the unique needs of adults with special needs in the Haredi community. They visited the Jerusalem branch of Shoham Day Center and a group home representing Seeach Sod's national group home program, and conducted a virtual meeting with the graduates, who work independently in different businesses in the community, from Jerusalem to Tzfat.
The MKs and their consultants – Eliyahu Cohen, consultant for MK Rabbi Yossi Teib, and Attorney Gil Golan, consultant for MK Rabbi Yinon Azulai – were presented with issues relating to the needs of the special needs community such as the caregiver teams' professional training, respite days, temporary hosting, digital technology available to students in the educational systems, availability of social workers in the local municipalities, land issues in the welfare frameworks, and more.
Rabbi Shimon Levy, CEO of Seeach Sod, summarized the discussion and said, "I welcome the establishment of a professional special needs headquarters in Shas, and am even suggesting a change to its name – to 'Headquarters for People with Disabilities' – since the life of a person with special needs includes much more, from education to [adult frameworks], as we've come to see in the tour."
In conclusion, the MKs expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to learn the actual needs in a tour that encompassed all solutions available to individuals with special needs of all ages and function levels. "Special needs is a very broad topic, and the more we delve into it the more requests we receive from parents to adapt solutions for them. A tour like this helps us understand the existing solutions and study the topic. We welcome the learning that we experienced in Seeach Sod, and hope to promote it also among the other MKs of Shas, which is a party that is invested in the welfare needs in Israel in general and in the Haredi community in particular."