Development of inclusion - Spain

Since school inclusion began in Spain in 1985 some things have been achieved although some of them still need to be worked on.
The 1990 Organic Act on the General Organisation of the Education System (LOGSE) regulates and governs special education within general plan education, asserts the incorporation of special education into the mainstream system and also introduces the concept of special educational needs. Pupils with special educational needs can attend mainstream or special education establishments. This Act also establishes that pupils with special educational needs should attend mainstream establishments and programmes, by adapting such programmes to the individual capacities of each pupil. Their schooling in special education units or establishments, or a combined schooling, will only take place when pupils’ needs cannot be met in mainstream establishments. This situation will be periodically revised in order to promote, if possible, the better inclusion of pupils.

Later, the 2002 Organic Act on the Quality of Education (LOCE) established a new framework, which gives attention to those pupils with ‘specific educational needs’. This new concept covers highly-gifted pupils, pupils with special educational needs, foreign pupils and those who require educational compensation. The above Act establishes that pupils with special educational needs can attend mainstream establishments with specialised classrooms, or ordinary groups in special education establishments or combined schooling, according to their abilities.  Education authorities, in turn, anticipate the existence of specialised mainstream establishments in order to meet the needs of this last type of schooling. As regards the other groups which constitute the concept of ''pupils with special educational needs'', the Act stipulates that the schooling of foreign pupils will be facilitated, by arranging specialised classrooms in mainstream establishments for those who do not have knowledge of the Spanish language and culture or lack basic knowledge.

Education authorities will take the necessary measures to facilitate the schooling of highly-gifted pupils in establishments where the adequate attention can be provided. Coinciding with the European Year of People with Disabilities, the 2 December 2003 the Act on Equal Opportunities, Non-Discrimination and Universal Accessibility for Disabled people has been passed. This Act complements the 1982 Act on Social Integration of Disabled People (LISMI).

Nowadays LOE, The Organic Law of Education 2006 says: The Education Administrations will dispose of the necessary measures to ensure that all students reach their maximum personal, intellectual, social and emotional potential, as well as the objectives of a general nature established in the present Law.” Ant it also adds “In order to put into practice the principle of equality in the exercise of education rights, the public authorities will carry out compensatory measures with disadvantaged people, groups and regions and provide the necessary economic resources and support. The final goal should be a school for all.

Historical Overview

Initial experiments in special education in Spain can be traced back to the sixteenth century and were intended for children with sensory handicaps. The same line of thought was followed over the next two centuries, although there were occasional experiments unrelated to general education with the deaf, blind, etc.

During the nineteenth century, schools and institutions of a purely charitable and aid-providing nature were set up for the education of children with sensory disorders and for the attention to the mentally ill and misfits. The segregation of the handicapped in institutions providing fundamental aid and medical care went on well into the twentieth century. The focus on rehabilitation and education was only slowly introduced. After the civil war, the development of special education was left in private hands, which fostered the setting up of specific centres.

The questionable results obtained by segregated institutions, international normalisation trends, as well as a growing social awareness all led to a change in the concept of the educational treatment to be received by social maladjusted and the handicapped. The change was embodied in the 1970 General Act on Education and Financing of Educational Reform (LGE), which for the first time organised and formulated special education in Spain and stated its goal as the training through appropriate educational treatment of all social maladjusted and handicapped for their inclusion into as full a social life as possible. Special education was to be provided in special centres, while at the same time the establishment of special educational units in mainstream schools was fostered whenever possible for those who were only slightly handicapped. The creation of the National Institute for Special Education (INEE) in 1975 should be emphasized within the development of the LGE as regards special education.

The 1978 Spanish Constitution guarantees all citizens’ right to education and urges public authorities to implement a policy of planning, treatment, rehabilitation and integration of people with physical, sensorial, and psychical disabilities in all social areas and, therefore, in education. The same year, the INEE drew up the National Plan on Special Education where the standardization of services, educational integration and individual attention principles are formulated for the first time.

The principles set down are embraced and legally embodied with the enactment in 1982 of the Law for the Social Integration of the Handicapped (LISMI). The Law sets down a series of measures concerning personal, social and labour attention to handicapped people. Among these measures are basic guidelines for the educational framework, with the aim of guaranteeing that these pupils may reach as far as possible the established general objectives of education.

According to the 1990 Organic Act on the General Organisation of the Education System (LOGSE), special education is no longer conceived as education for a different kind of pupil and begins to be conceived as the set of material and personal resources available in the education system in order to be able to meet the needs, either transitory or permanent, that part of the pupils may have. In this sense, the education system must have the necessary resources so that pupils with special educational needs may achieve the general goals set for all pupils. This Act lays down the inclusion of special education within the mainstream system and introduces the concept of ‘special educational needs’. The latter term covers anything from the most common and interim of needs to those of a more severe and permanent nature. All educational necessities should be attended to within the framework of a comprehensive education system that is open to diversity. The principle of normalisation, with the aim of promoting school integration, underlies this Act.

At present, the Organic Law of Education LOE 2006 changes the scope and the objectives on special education which is not longer the concept, but SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT NEEDS.  It must take into account that education focuses on achieving the respect for basic rights and liberties, equal rights and opportunities between men and women and equal treatment and non-discrimination for the disabled.