A/N: Another entry for the International Wizarding School Championship. This time another short drabble. Entry information:
IWSC Writing School Challenge Round 4
Story Title/Link: Making Accommodations
School: Beauxbatons
Year: 6
Word count: 989 (10% leeway)
Technique: Commas- Use a comma before any coordinating conjunction; use a comma when directly addressing someone or something in the sentence; use a comma when attributing quotes.
Prompt: Education equality
Making Accommodations
"What do you mean? Our only option is a boarding school in Scotland? Surely you must be joking," Mrs Greene said with a scowl, putting her arm around her son protectively.
Neville sighed. This was his third Muggleborn Hogwarts delivery letter of the school year and the first to give him trouble.
He looked at the young boy, Joshua, sitting on the sofa next to his mother. He was staring intently at his fingers as he twisted them, then bringing them up close to his eyes as if to examine them further. His dark blond hair, the perfect match to his mother's, fell into his eyes.
The child glanced up at him and smiled. "I know all about the respiratory system. It's my favourite. Fun fact: the left lung is smaller than the right lung. Did you know that?"
Neville returned the smile and answered in a calm voice, "I didn't. Where did you learn that?"
"On YouTube, but then mom bought me books and I read all about it."
"You must be very smart to know all about the respiratory system," he prodded, trying to get a better feel for the child.
"Yeah," Joshua Greene answered before moving his eyes back down to his fingers.
"Look, Professor Longbottom," the mother started, bringing his attention back to her. "This all sounds pretty crazy, magic and castles and secret societies, but I've seen Joshua and what he can do, and I believe you. I'm relieved that there's actually an answer to this and a place where he can go and learn. He's a smart kid, obviously, but he's not able to go to a boarding school. There must be some other way. What do children do who are homebound due to illness, or who have disabilities, like Joshua?"
That caught Neville off-guard. Disabilities? He looked at the boy who seemed whole and not disabled at all. "Well, there are some children that are taught at home with tutors or by their parents, but that won't work in a non-magical family and community like yours. There's a law called the Statute of Secrecy, and that would make teaching him at home extremely difficult."
"And you've no special accommodations for children who still wish to attend, but who cannot board there for whatever reason?" She looked annoyed. "Didn't you tell me earlier that wizards have magical means of travel, allowing you to just pop down from Scotland without any difficulty? So, why would the location where the child spends his evening and sleeps each night affect anything?"
Neville hesitated, thinking about what she was asking. It was true that it didn't really matter where the child slept, but if they couldn't do magic at home, they'd fall behind. "Well, magic is sometimes required for homework lessons."
"And there's no time throughout the school day for that to be done? Especially early on, when they're this young?"
He nodded. "You have a point there, but it's not been done before, and honestly, I don't see anything about Joshua that would warrant special circumstances."
She raised an eyebrow and reached up to ruffle her son's hair. He ducked away, and she continued with a smile, her voice softer. "Joshua is Autistic, which for him means that he often needs help staying on task or remembering to take care of things that typical children do without thinking. He's completely capable of keeping up with the school workload, but he needs time to be alone, to have quiet and avoid stimulations. Basically, he needs to come home at the end of the day and have a stable environment."
Neville sat back, thinking about what she'd said. He knew he'd needed time like that, and living in the dormitories had been severely challenging for him. If he'd been given the opportunity to go home each evening, would he have flourished sooner? Would he have struggled as much?
"Mrs Greene, could you perhaps give me a list of his current school arrangements? I'll bring them to the Headmistress and explain your request. She'll likely want to meet you both, and she'll have questions."
"Thank you, but why aren't these options available to all students. Shouldn't everyone have the option to live and learn in the way that best suits them? Children with anxiety, or mental health concerns, or even those who are just needed at home from time to time, shouldn't they have the same options? Right now, if someone has one of these problems, what happens?"
"They withdraw," Neville responded automatically, his mind running through the ramifications of what she was suggesting. Enrollment had never fully recovered in the decade after the war, and they did seem to have more children opting for alternative schooling options each year. Could this be the answer? It seemed too simple.
"That's what I thought," she said with a nod, then stood and opened a nearby desk where she withdrew a folder of paperwork. "But those children should be allowed to have access to the same master scholarly program at Hogwarts as the others. By not offering accommodations, your school is effectively discriminating."
He gave her a weak smile. "You've given us a lot to think about, Mrs Greene." He reached out to take the folder she'd handed him.
"Those are his current school papers, and you'll see what they do for him and how it helps."
"Thank you, ma'am," he murmured as he stood, then he looked at Joshua. "It was very nice to meet you, young man. I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure you can come to my school next year and teach me more about the respiratory system. Would you like that?"
Joshua gave him a huge smile. "Sure. Why not?"
Neville chuckled and walked to the door, absentmindedly issuing his farewells and leaving the house, his mind replaying the conversation. It seemed he and Minerva were about to have a long talk.
A/N: If you're wondering if Joshua is written accurately as an Autistic child, I'd like to give a friendly reminder that every Autistic person (and every Neurodiverse person, that's a term that encompasses Autistics and a whole lot of other Neurotypes) is different in the same way every Neurotypical person (that's the term for the rest of us) is different. Joshua is based off my experiences with my own 8-year-old Autistic son, right down to the respiratory system knowledge that is his current obsession. The fight with the education system to get proper accommodations for a child with special needs of any kind is a common one that nearly all parents of such children will recognize.
Finally, I do my best to use terminology preferred by the Adult Autistic community that I follow on multiple social media sites, where they prefer the term Autistic Child/Adult/Person and not Person with Autism. If you would like more information about any of those websites, I'd be happy to share them. They do a lot of advocacy for the Autistic community.