Special education lights up disabled lives

Teng no longer spits everywhere and can make his own bed.

He Li remembers every step forward her son has made since starting at the school: greeting classmates and reading texts fluently; winning a prize for drawing at the school's art gala; and learning to play musical instruments.

"Sometimes, when he performs on stage, he is in a good mood and high spirits," He Li said. "If he were not at this school, I can't imagine what would have happened to him and our family."

Love, encouragement

Special education students are often slow to learn, quick to forget and have comprehension difficulties.

As such, Fengcheng encourages parents to take an active part in helping to improve the students' physical and mental well-being.

However, more than 90 percent of the students come from rural areas, and many parents do not know how to raise their mentally disabled children appropriately.

Some of the parents have mental disabilities themselves, while others focus on the healthy children in their families. Some see Fengcheng as a welfare home or kindergarten, taking it for granted that the teachers should care for the students' daily needs.

"Some parents drop off their children in the morning and change their phone numbers in the afternoon," said Li Hong, a teacher.

However, the school never gives up on a single child. Sometimes, when the teachers find disabled school-age children in rural areas, they accept them under China's "zero rejection" education requirement.

Students come and go. "The number of students is around 210 and is always changing," said Song Jibo, the school principal.

The annual financial allocation for the school is more than 2 million yuan ($310,000), and the average public fund for students is eight times that of ordinary schools.

The students' rehabilitation training, accommodations, uniforms and other items are provided by the school free of charge, Song said.

It is also common for teachers to buy clothes for the students or to give them their own children's clothes, when they come and say they have no more socks or clothes for the season.