Identification of special educational needs - Switzerland

Introduction

There are special agencies in each of the Swiss Cantons responsible for investigatory procedures, diagnoses, therapies and advisories (among others: the school psychological services).
Within the scope of inter-cantonal collaboration in Special Needs Education affairs, a project team is developing standardised investigatory procedures for the assessment  of individual educational and development requirements for SEN children and juveniles.

Phases of education

Early Childhood Education

The special educational needs of young children are mostly identified by medical doctors and early intervention specialists. As early intervention is not obligatory in Switzerland, parents must give their approval for initial assessment and possible intervention.

Identification procedure: there is no standard instrument available; orientation on ICF is under discussion (procedures based on ICF are being developed).

Compulsory Schooling

The identification of special needs in school children is often initiated by early intervention specialists. In addition, in most cantons, school psychologists play a central role.
Also important are: parents, teachers, SNE specialists (SNE school managers), the school administration board (Schulbehörde i.e. school commission at community level) and cantonal institutions (e.g. the cantonal board for obligatory schooling; Amt für Volksschulbildung).

In many cantons, the final decision is made by the school administrative board. In case of a disagreement, a special procedure has to be followed in many cantons (e.g. second assessment, hearing of the parents), but the final decision remains within the brief of the school administrative board.

Transition period

During this period, identification of needs is mostly based on earlier educational identification procedures.

Future Investigatory Procedures

The basis for the investigatory procedures has been adopted from the 'ICF' - International Classification of Functioning of the 'WHO' - World Health Organisation, in particular from the 'ICF-CY' version for disabled children and juveniles, as well as other classification systems such as the 'ICD-10' - International Classification of Diseases. (Source: http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/en, and http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en) 

The investigatory procedures will in future permit the Swiss Cantons to allocate individual resources within the scope of the early childhood area, the regular schooling system, special classes or special schools , for disabled children and juveniles, who require enhanced special educational measures. Under pilot trials for the development of standardised investigatory procedures, assessment instrumentation will be drawn up for the pre-school-, obligatory primary school- and the secondary school level 'II'.
The new standardised investigatory procedures will become obligatory for the cantons which have ratified the Intercantonal agreement of collaboration in the domain of Special Needs Education.