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For a variety of its own reasons not applicable to the Committee, the agency may implement all/most of the recommendations,
but few times recommendations are not implemented.
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1. The new American overseas school in Libya opened in September 2005. The school continued to grow and experienced an increase
in the number of students each year until the schools was closed in 2011 due to the uprising in Lybia. 2. To date, the Department's
Office of Overseas Schools has provided security enhancement grants, totaling over $85 million, for 709 security enhancement
grants to 538 overseas schools averaging nearly $150,000 per school. These schools serve USG dependents and other American
citizens. This is part of the Soft Targets Program launched in response to Congressional concerns over the security of U.S.
citizens overseas. These schools include 190 Department-assisted schools. The grants are used for security enhancements such
as shatter resistant window film, public address systems, emergency radios, security walls, bollards, gate systems and other
physical security upgrades. It is anticipated that Congress will provide additional funding for the Soft Target program in
FY 2011, but at a reduced level.3. The Council's Emergency Procedures Manual has proved so useful to overseas schools that
it was reprinted three times and has undergone three updates. The 2006 update included information on preparing for pandemics
such as Avian flu. In addition, the Council sponsored a project in 2007 to update the manual, this time to provide information
to American overseas schools on the handling of terrorism and trauma. In 2008 the Council sponsored a project to update the
manual to incorporated the latest information on the handling of emergency situations. The Council has distributed the updated
manual to American overseas schools and to U.S. diplomatic posts and posted it on the Department’s Intranet.4. In response
to the Council's recommendation, the Department's Office of Overseas Schools developed a training program for teachers of
children with special needs in American overseas schools. For its part, the Overseas Schools Advisory Council has sponsored
several educational enhancement projects for American overseas schools on students with special needs including the publication
of "Count Me In", which provides guidance to teachers in integrating students with moderate disabilities into regular classrooms.
Another Council project addressing special needs was "Making the Difference:Differentiation in International Schools", which
was published in 2007. This project provided a training manual for teachers in how to assess and differentiate the educational
needs of students in multi-cultural and multi-lingual classrooms. The project has proven so popular with the 196 American
overseas schools that the manual is now in its fifth printing. A third Council project that addressed special needs of students
was "Parent Advocacy in International Schools", a handbook that was published in 2008. It provides guidance for parents in
how to work more effectively with teachers and administrators to meet the educational needs of their children who are students
in American overseas schools. The reception of this project has been excellent and many of the schools have asked the Council
to provide a copy for all parents and teachers. 5. The Department's Office of Overseas Schools has included as a key part
of its mission, encouragement and assistance to these schools to incorporate new educational technologies (computers, CD-ROM,
multimedia and telecommunications) into administrative areas and the educational process. The Council has provided assistance
in technology to American overseas schools through twelve technology assistance projects over the last twelve years.
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