French laws and rules governing the work of disabled persons have a long history:
- Text of 26 April, 1924 ("diminished" workers)
- Law of November 23, 1957: establishment of a quota of 10% of disabled workers in companies with over 10 employees.
- Law of 30 June, 1975: which "seeks to establish in a single text all the main approaches and resources for their gradual application, which must allow every disabled person to achieve the greatest possible degree of social integration."
This text is of considerable importance. For several months it has been undergoing a revision process, and this revision is planned in the near future. The law of June 30, 1975 marks the replacement of the concept of assistance by that of solidarity.
This law reorganises the Commissions in each Department in charge of guiding young people (Commission Départementale de l'Education Spéciale, CDES) and disabled adults (Technical Commission for Guidance and Professional Placement, COTOREP). It unifies the laws of 1924 and 1957 on the obligation to hire without modifying them.
Law of July 10, 1987: this text considerably improves the previous provisions in a difficult context of unemployment particularly affecting the most vulnerable population groups. This text combines previous systems of obligation to hire. Under this law, the private and public sectors are subject to an employment quota of 6% of disabled workers for companies with over 20 employees.
- Law of 10 July, 1987 replaces an obligation of procedure with an obligation of result.
Companies may meet this obligation in different ways:
- hiring disabled workers,
- subcontracting with the sheltered sector (limited to 3% of the employment rate),
- collective contractual agreements with tax deductions, approved by the state,
- payment to a development fund for the professional integration of disabled persons (Association Nationale de Gestion de Fonds pour l'Insertion Professionelle des Personnes Handicapées), (contribution equal to 500 times the minimum hourly wage per job not provided).
The French model, while strongly emphasising its preference for the integration of disabled persons in an ordinary working and living environment, is based on three essential concepts:
- considerable development of sheltered work (considerable contribution or strong intervention by the state)
- a strong tradition of compensation (allowances, pensions, etc.)
- an obligation to hire (for companies and administrations).
At the same time as the renovation of laws and rules governing the social and professional integration of disabled adults, the educational system and its specialised division (Educational Adaptation and Integration) have considerably changed.
If the law of 1975 recommended processes allowing young persons to remain inside the ordinary educational system, in preference to any other solution, if the decrees of 1982 and 1983 established the principles and technical conditions for educational integration, the Guideline Law on Education of July 10, 1989, the texts deriving from it, and the large scale reform of the medical-educational system (Reform of appendixes XXIV) provided integration initiatives with a quite favourable context.
The French system of helping young disabled persons gave a considerable role to voluntary non-profit associations. Associations of parents of disabled children now manage many specialised institutions. Some of these associations very early launched initiatives aiming at keeping disabled children in ordinary schools. This strong social demand was first directed toward primary schools (nursery schools and elementary schools). It was materialised through the development of individual integration, and in 1991 by the creation of structures of collective integration, the Classe d'Intégration Scolaire CLIS, Educational Integration Class (1991), and mechanisms for help and support to integration, the SESSAD (Service d'Education et de Soins Spécialisés A Domicile - Service of Education and Specialised Care in the Home). Special mechanisms for placing mentally disabled adolescents in secondary schools (Unité Pédagogique d'Intégration, UPI) were set up in 1995. The systems in the secondary schools were broadened in a recent text to other types of disabilities. Many families and associations which had been active in promoting educational integration initiatives quite naturally became involved in seeking professional training and social integration in ordinary environments of young persons now turned adults.
Over the past 2 years many measures have been taken in the educational system to develop integration significantly. These new measures strengthen the already existing measures.
The new definition of the tasks of schools and structures participating in this public service mission has, since 1989, led these structures to follow up the young people they had educated. (This obligation has been extended to 3 years for specialised institutions).
The questions of professional training, social and professional integration in an ordinary environment are thus at the heart of present discussions on this question.
The initiatives conducted by the LAVAL team are significant. The characteristic of the changes in French policy in this area: if the framework and the motivations remain national, France has given up centuries-old centralisation nearly 20 years ago. Local solutions, synergies of participants in the field, the implementation of original and innovative procedures are developing, even if the sharing of these "experiments" often remains problematic or limited.
Beyond the specific aspects of these initiatives, several decisive factors, and perhaps several "recommendations" should be put forward. Indeed, they might be useful to those who are already involved, or those who plan to help in this change, this TRANSITION between school and the work world of young disabled persons.