Special Education

Dakar Academy in Senegal offers a Special Education program to students in West Africa.

Special Education assistance is available for students K-12 who have documented challenges affecting their academic success. Basic cognitive and achievement assessments are available as needed; however, parents are strongly encouraged to have their child assessed in their home country when possible.  Annual assessments are done to monitor student progress and program effectiveness.

Our Special Education program is Resource Room based but encourages inclusion. Parents, teachers, and administrators work together to provide the best support possible to help our students achieve their full potential. This can be done through accommodations, modifications, and/or individual instruction. All of these are based on the child’s individual needs.

Dakar Academy Schools offers its students the opportunity for Speech-Language Pathology in English at our Central campus. We also offer special needs services, such as Individualized Education Plans (IEP) which are developed with the child’s teachers, parents and our experienced team, drawing on our very well-developed program at our Central campus and now available at West campus. 

Our team includes:

  • Vanessa Power is an English-language Speech-Language Pathologist and our District Coordinator of Support Services for Dakar Academy Schools. She has 20 years of SLP/teaching experience, a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology, a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders and a minor in American Sign Language.

  • Dorathy Ahua is our Special Education Lead Teacher for DA West. She has 8 years of teaching experience that includes special education, foreign language education, and teaching English language learners. She has a Bachelor's of Arts in French and a Master's of Arts in Education. She also holds a teaching certificate in French and she is an ACSI-certified teacher.

  • Maggs Bonthuys is our English Language Learner Lead Teacher for DA West. She has lived in Senegal for 23 years and is TEFL certified and holds a degree in theology. Her teaching experience includes homeschooling for all elementary grades and teaching English at l'Université de Thies.

  • Mia LaClare is a Speech-Language Specialist and Special Education Lead Teacher at DA Central. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with SPED concentration and is a Master's student in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She worked as a Speech Specialist in a public school district in California.