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Abstract
This article explores the experiences of 14 students with severe and complex behaviour, their caregivers, and teachers/principals as the students transition from a disestablished residential school back to mainstream schools, with support from the Intensive Wraparound Service (IWS). Interviews were the primary source of data collection. Data were collated into 14 cases, and analysed using a general inductive approach. Two broad themes are addressed in the article: education and relationships/communication. The research found that the IWS is not living up to its rhetoric. Suggestions made for improvement are based on approaches that participants found worked for them.
Notes
1. At that time New Zealand had four residential schools for students with special needs, two for behavioural needs and two for intellectual needs (Ministry of Education Citation2012b, 6).
2. Refer to Burgon, Berg, and Herdina (Citation2015) for more information on the IWS.
3. Four students usually resided with grandparents, two with foster parents, and the remaining eight were with one or two parents. The generic term ‘caregiver’ is used to refer to all of them.
4. There is a New Zealand precedent for boarding school placements being provided free of charge to students from disadvantaged families. Dilworth boarding school in Auckland was specially set up to provide all the benefits of a middle-class education and living conditions to such students.