KHDA
The authority regulating private schools in Dubai. It publishes an inclusive education policy framework and inspects schools against it.
Why KHDA matters.
For a parent in Dubai this is the body whose expectations your child's school is working to. The framework's direction is not ambiguous: children with additional needs are students of determination, schools are expected to admit them, and a place is not supposed to depend on whether a family can privately fund a one-to-one assistant.
We are not lawyers and none of this is legal advice. Practically, what moves these conversations is a written request attached to a specific assessed need, and a written reply. What stalls them is a series of meetings nobody minutes.
Questions that get a real answer
- Can I have the school's position in writing, with the reason?
- What would the school need in order to say yes?
- What is the school's published admissions position on students of determination?
Ask these of anyone, including us. What you are listening for is not the right answer — it is whether the answer is specific enough to be wrong.
Terms that usually turn up alongside it.
LSA
An adult supporting a child in class. Done well, they work to written targets under clinical supervision with
GlossaryOccupational therapy
Therapy focused on the practical business of daily life — motor skills, self-care, sensory regulation, and
GlossaryPhonological awareness
Hearing and manipulating the sounds inside spoken words — rhyme, syllables, the individual sounds in "cat".
Send it to us and we'll translate it.
Any report, from any provider, including ones we have nothing to do with. We will tell you in plain English what it says, what it recommends, and which parts are actually supported by the evidence in it. No charge, and it does not make you a client.