Special Needs Education Policy Issues and Challenges

Deborah Roseveare

Israel Accession Seminar

22-23 November, 2011

Wide variations across countries on definitions and policy approaches

Two broad definitions:

1.“students with disabilities and learning difficulties” reflects: – characteristics of the child– medical/psychological/social nature of their difficulties

2.“students with special educational needs” emphasises: – nature of their learning needs – gap to bridge between normal educational provision and tailored

educational responses

What are special needs?

How many students are receiving special needs education? •Finland: more than 30% of children receive special education•England: nearly 20% of children classified as having special needs •Japan: special needs education covers less than 3% of children

•Within the US, share of students covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in each state range from just over 10% to around 20%

What are special needs?

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) becoming more significant

In United States – estimated prevalence of ASD among 8 year olds increased from

almost 0.7% in 2002 to 0.9% in 2006 – California: students with ASD 8.8% of special education enrolments

In Japan – 1/3 of children in special schools and 3/4 of children in special

classes are ASD– children with autism receiving special services in resource rooms

doubled between 2006 and 2009

In England – 8% of all students in state schools receiving special education

services under Special Action Plus or a Statement were ASD

What are special needs?

In practice, boundaries typically based on some combination:

What are special needs?

Criteria/processes

for identifying the student and

assessing his/her education needs

Specific funding arrangements for

children with special needs

Range of learning settings and

specific interventions that may be provided

Strong commitment in countries to providing education that: • enables all children to realise their full potential • avoids discrimination of students with disabilities and learning difficulties

But …

Designing policies to achieve these commitments and ensuring that these commitments are fully realised in practice has always been a complex task.

Special needs presents policy challenges

What tensions emerging?

special needs education requires additional resources ..... ......and education budgets are under pressure

Public spending on special needs: •Almost 17% of K-12 general fund expenditures in California•Around 13% of total spending on schools in Scotland

At this point: •Difficult to get comprehensive picture of outlays on special needs within countries•Impossible to develop reliable international statistical comparisons

Source: Mitchell, D., (2010), Education that Fits: Review of International Trends in the Education of Students with Special Educational Needs, www.educationcounts.govt.nz

Funding Models for Special Education

Discretionary funding

provide separate funds for special education purposes

Categorical funding

allocate additional funding to each student with an identified disability, with the amount based on the child’s degree and type of disability

Voucher-based funding

provide a direct public payment to parents to cover their child’s public or private school costs

Census-based allocate funding on the basis of the number of students with certain weighted characteristics, such as socio-economic status or the type and degree of disability

Actual costs funding

allocate funding based on the actual costs involved in providing special education services

What tensions emerging?

special needs provisions may be abused by some parents or schools to:gain a competitive edge over other pupils, or additional resources, or a shift in responsibilities

In the United Kingdom

•Recent Ofsted review said as many as half of all pupils identified for School Action would not be identified as having special needs if schools focussed on improving teaching and learning for all

In Australia

•Studies show paediatricians are being pressured to inflate diagnoses of emotional and behavioural so that children get support services

What tensions emerging?

resources allocated to children with special needs are not spent on other children, raising equity concerns, especially when budgets under pressure

If authorities obliged to provide certain level of services for children with special needs within fixed budgets then less for other children

“As principal when a child enrolled in our school with a need for a one-on-one adult assistant, I had to cancel the after-school tutoring that served about 60 low-income students who were behind grade level in reading and math”

“The school was devastated when a family with three children who needed 100 000 USD worth of services moved into town. Two classroom teachers were laid off to hire the required SPED teachers, this resulted in all 5th and 6th graders in the school being adversely impacted.”

What tensions emerging?

children with special needs may not get appropriate support approaches used may not be cost-effective successful outcomes are difficult to define and measure

Main contentions

1 What diagnostic tools, services and procedures are needed, who should provide them, who should bear the cost and how diagnostic practices align with legal requirements

2 What interventions are most appropriate, where they should be provided – within, or as a complement to a regular class, in a special class or in a special school – and how the decisions are taken

3 What criteria should be used to define successful intervention and how should educational outcomes be measured for students with special education needs

What tensions emerging?

lobby groups and advocacy shape policies and practices parents are sometimes frustrated with processes and outcomes

In some countries a general presumption that inclusion is always best – often driven by a rights-based rather than evidence-based approach

Evidence on benefits of inclusion for both special needs and other students is relatively limited and somewhat mixed

Parents of typically developing children have more positive attitudes towards inclusion than parents of children with disabilities, who often indicated that inclusion was not a good option for their child

But some parents express frustration and may become strong advocates for their children’s needs. In some countries, lawsuits have become a way to resolve disputes or obtain particular services

Improving policies for students with special education needs and to help them achieve better educational and social outcomes

What policy challenges are countries facing?

How to define special needs and special needs education?

Does a single definition work both for assisting each child and

for the system as a whole?

How to ensure all children with special needs are properly Identified and children are not

misdiagnosed because of either professional error or

to gain access to extra resources? How to ensure that children

with special needs get a cost-effective response that improves

learning outcomes and wellbeing and also provided as cost-effectively as possible?

Improving policies for students with special education needs and to help them achieve better educational and social outcomes

How to finance services?How to manage trade-offs between

financing additional support for special needs and funding available for other

children?How to reconcile parents’ wisheswith advice of professionals and

with available resources? How to build more evidence into policy making?

What data or indicators are most relevant to inform

policy decisions?

What policy challenges are countries facing?

Thank you!