Identification of special educational needs - Spain

LOE (2006, Organic Law of Education) focuses attention on those students with SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT NEEDS. This  concept covers the students who require additional educational support because of special educational needs, specific learning difficulties, high intellectual capacity, late entry to the education system or due to personal conditions or past school records.

LOE (2006, Organic Law of Education) regulates and governs special education within general education and asserts the incorporation of special education into the mainstream system. It also introduces the concept of special educational needs. Pupils with special educational needs can attend mainstream or special education establishments. This law 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, better inclusion of the pupils.

According to LOE (2006, Organic Law of Education), special education is no longer conceived as education for a different kind of pupil, but begins to be conceived as a combination of material and personnel resources available to the education system in order to be able to meet the needs (either transitory or permanent) that 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. The principle of normalisation, with the aim of promoting school inclusion, underlies this Law.

The 2006 Organic Law of Education (LOE) stipulates that, in the case of pupils with special educational needs, the identification and evaluation of their needs will be carried out by teams of professionals with different qualifications. These professionals will establish performance plans with regard to each pupil’s educational needs, taking into account both parents’ and teachers’ opinions, as well as the management team of the corresponding establishment. At the end of each year, the evaluation team will assess the extent to which the objectives set out in the plan have been achieved. This will facilitate the introduction of the necessary adaptations, including the most suitable type of schooling according to pupil’s educational needs. If necessary, this decision can be made during the school year.