How to Contact an International School About Your Child's Additional Needs

Raising additional needs early, before you formally apply, saves everyone time and avoids a difficult surprise halfway through the process. You don't need a formal diagnosis in hand to start this conversation. Describing your child's profile in plain, specific terms is usually enough for a school to tell you honestly whether they can support them well, which is what you actually need to know at this stage.

Who to actually ask for

International schools use different job titles for this role depending on where they follow the British system or not, SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator), Head of Learning Support, or Head of Inclusion are the most common. Asking admissions to put you in touch with whoever holds that role by title, rather than just "the SEN team", tends to get you to the right person faster. Schools rated with Advanced or Specialist learning support, like Sunny View School in Malaga or The Montessori School of Mallorca, usually have someone in this role who fields exactly this kind of enquiry directly.

What to share first

Lead with your child's profile rather than a label: what support they currently get, what helps them settle in a classroom, and where they tend to struggle. It's worth describing what you see at home too, not only what's shown up at school, some children mask difficulties well in a classroom setting, especially over a short visit, so a school hearing only the school-side picture can miss real detail. If you have a diagnosis or an educational psychologist's report, it's fine to mention that it exists, you don't need to send it at first contact, just flag it so the school knows more detail is available.

Questions to ask directly

• What learning or behavioural support does the school provide as standard, and what costs extra on top of tuition?
• Is there a dedicated learning support or SEN department, and can we speak to someone from it before we apply?
• Does the school require its own assessment, or will it work from an existing report we already have?
• How does the school actually communicate progress on a support plan through the year, not just at parent-teacher meetings?
• If my child turns out to need more support than expected once they've started, what's the process from there?

Email template you can use

Subject: Learning support enquiry ahead of application: [Year Group]

Dear Admissions Team,

We're considering your school for our [son/daughter], age [X], for [Year Group] starting [Month/Year]. Before applying, we'd like to understand your learning support provision. Our child [brief profile, e.g. has an existing diagnosis of dyslexia and currently receives weekly learning support / has some behavioural support needs in busy classroom settings].

Could your SENCo or Head of Learning Support advise on what's available, and whether your own assessment is required as part of admissions? We'd appreciate a written summary of the conversation for our own records, if that's possible.

Thank you for your guidance. Kind regards, [Name]

Why it helps to be upfront

It's tempting to underplay a child's profile early on, to keep more schools on the table for longer. In practice, an under-described need tends to resurface later, usually at a worse moment than if it had come up on day one. How a school responds to an honest, specific enquiry is itself useful information, a school that engages properly is showing you what working with them will actually be like.

How to contact school via doris

Step 1: view school profile 

Step 2: Pick your enquiry and contact school directly 

Step 3: Fill-up your questions, and you'll get the answer from your dashboard in no time. 

note: Some schools on doris have a contact option, while others don’t. If you can’t find contact details, visit the school’s website and check its “Contact Us” or “Admissions” page.

FAQ

Do I need a formal diagnosis before contacting a school? No. A clear description of your child's current support and classroom needs is enough for a first conversation. Formal reports usually come later, once a school has said they're a plausible fit.

Will disclosing additional needs work against our application? At a school genuinely equipped to support your child, it shouldn't, and disclosing early is what protects your child from ending up somewhere unsuitable. Treat a poor reaction to an honest question as information about the school, not a reason to have stayed quiet.

How do I find schools with strong SEN support in a specific country? doris rates schools by SEN learning and behaviour support level, so you can filter directly by country and support level rather than relying on prospectus language alone.

What if the school says outright they can't support our child's needs? Ask exactly what they can't accommodate, and whether that could change with more notice or a different starting point. A clear no now is a better outcome than an unsuitable placement six months in.

doris is a free, impartial international school discovery platform designed to help parents find the right international school for their children worldwide. Every school profile includes fees, curriculum, admissions, pupil numbers and more. Parents can compare schools, contact schools directly, access expert parent guides, and connect with a community of parents around the world. Start your search at doris.

This guide was written by Aziza F, part of the doris editorial team. doris sources school data from institutions worldwide and speaks directly with parents navigating the school search process. Fee data reflects published and publicly available information for the 2026 to 2027 academic year and is reviewed annually. External sources: school admissions pages, doris parent community.