A legislator will now propose the creation of the a technical working group to craft the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Davao City Special Needs Intervention Center.
Councilor Antoinette Principe-Castrodes, who chairs the committee on ethics and good government, said the next step for the establishment of the intervention center is to craft the IRR of the ordinance.
“We need that group because the IRR is somewhat critical or complex of a work,” she said, during the SP media briefing on Wednesday, March 6.
The ordinance creating the intervention center was approved on third and final reading on Feb. 20 to provide educational and therapy services to children with special needs.
The services of the center “shall be given to the bona fide residents of Davao City who belong to indigent families or low income families, subject to rules and regulation of admission and retention prescribed by the council or the City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO).”
The services will be free for children with special needs who belong to the indigent sector of the city, adding that there are families whose financial capacity could not afford to send or bring their children for therapy.
The children to be admitted at the center will range from ages 0 to 6 years old as the center will offer services for early intervention..
The said center has a budget of P41 million. It will be placed at the Alternative Learning Center compound near People’s Park at Pelayo Street, Barangay 4-A, Poblacion District, with an area of more or less 1,000 square meters. The city architect is in charge of the building.
“This center is created to address and give aid to those indigent parents of children with special needs. This is a help for them, to help their children undergo therapy,” she said.
However Principe-Castrodes admitted that the challenge for now is hiring of medical personnel to operate the center. She said that only a few people specialize in speech therapy, audiology, and occupational therapy.
“Not many engage in these medical positions, especially speech therapists. That is one major challenge of the ordinance,” she said.
