From a historical perspective, the care of pupils with special educational needs has developed, in this way, from a segregated approach into a more integrative approach, with the placement of special teachers in mainstream schools. Nowadays, the Support Education Services are more and more viewed as an educational support and resource service for mainstream schools. As the Salamanca Statement establishes, special institutions are thus being transformed into specific resource centres that offer support to the educational and social community.

At the moment Ministry of Education has the responsibility for educational support for pupils with special educational needs that are in compulsory education. Despite that there are still some special schools under the responsibility of Solidarity and Social Assistance Ministry (special schools run by private non-profit making organisations, the so called Social Solidarity Institutions (IPSS)). The Ministry of Education has also some agreements with private (profit and non-profit making) special schools. Five Regional Education Directions in Portugal manage the schools and the support teachers.

If the education of pupils with special educational needs in Portugal was in the past mainly provided in institutional settings, a clear policy of integration of pupils with sensory and physical handicaps in mainstream education started in the middle of the 1970's. In this period the Special Education Service was established in the Ministry of Education. This department (Basic Education Department) created Special Education Teams as a service of itinerant special teachers in order to support pupils with different handicaps in mainstream schools. However, it was only after the publication of the General Comprehensive Law for Education (1986) and the Decree of 1991, that legal instruments were established which guarantee the rights of handicapped children to education and access to mainstream schools.

The Comprehensive Law prescribed 9 years of compulsory education and stated that special education is mainly established by diversified models of integration and in certain severe cases special education can take place in specific institutions. From 1990 onwards, education has been compulsory for pupils with special educational needs.

This important law that established the principles of special education, the Decree 319 of 1991, settles that the pupil must attend his home school and establishes the placement of the pupil in the least restrictive environment. This implied a complete change of paradigms in Portugal. The assessment of special educational needs is now education based instead of based upon a medical or therapeutic model. To put this into practice (recent self autonomy and management of schools decree, 115-A from1998) the school can initiate several activities in order to influence positively the process of teaching of pupils with special educational needs, such as special equipment, special assessment conditions and flexibility of the management of the curriculum. The law establishes the arrangement of an Individual Education Plan (IEP), to be elaborated by the Specialised Education Support Services (Psycho-Pedagogical Services (SPO), Educative Support Teacher).

After a period of debate from some years, a new law was created in 1997 (Law 105, 1st July, 1997). Through this law, the organisation of special needs education changed, defining support teachers in the school as a resource service, working directly with the school board and co-operating with mainstream teachers in diversifying educational approaches and strategies in order to improve pupils learning. Support teachers "belong" to schools that have pupils with special education needs and the so-called "special teaching" is as much a resource of that school as any other. The attached support aims to meet all school needs and also serve the wider local community.

In Portugal there are now 192 Support Education Co-ordination Teams, involving 443 professionals, whose functions are the co-ordination of different services in the area (6500 support teachers placed in public schools and 75.000 pupils with special educational needs from early intervention to the age of 18 attended), contributing for the detection of special educational needs and the organisation of the support in order to improve the diversification of pedagogical practices.
At the moment some projects are run by the co-ordination teams in order to develop co-operation between local services concerning health, social services, work and education (special schools), for example in the field of early intervention, or transition to active life.

So, if traditionally, support was organised via Special Teaching Teams - specialist teachers going into mainstream schools in order to support pupils and/or teachers, and sometimes, pupils with special educational that were placed in special classes for support, nowadays this approach is not seen as been the most adequate to meet pupils and school needs.

In spite of this, for pupils with more severe special educational needs, the tendency is to establish partnerships between the special institutions (CERCI) and the co-ordination teams of educational supports. Often there may also be the involvement and contribution of other services - such as the Social Assistance Ministry, Employment services as well as the Municipality - in order to establish support projects to allow the pupils to participate in social and school activities within their own home area.

Agreements between the Ministry of Education, Co-operatives (CERCI) and Parent's Associations receive several means of financial support from the State, namely funding for teachers' and some technicians' and several fees (food, transport, etc.) Regarding the private profit - making institutions (Colégios), the Ministry of Education pays a certain amount of money to support each pupil.
The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Assistance has the responsibility of private solidarity institutions (IPSS) and parents associations (APPACDM) for whom the Ministry of Education contributes also with payment of teachers and some other kinds of subsidies. Close co-operation is maintained between Ministries and the non-profit making associations and co-operatives (CERCI) and private profit-making institutions (Colégios).

Although there is a clear integration policy in Portugal, sometimes special classes emerge within the system. In total there are about 200 special classes, which are especially attended (full-time or part-time) by deaf and multi-handicapped pupils.

Our definitions of special educational needs/ handicaps, until the 1980s, were based on the classification of the handicaps in categories that were based on medical concepts. In the 1980s, the concept of specific educational needs was introduced, classifying handicaps more on an educational basis. Pupils with specific educational needs are described as pupils, who demand special resources and/or adaptations in their learning process to access the individualised curricula established for him/her.

Concerning the Curriculum and teaching arrangements, pupils with special educational needs should follow the mainstream school curriculum as much as possible in order to prepare their project of life (training, leisure, occupation, work, following studies, and other requisites of citizenship). If the Support Team concludes that some aspects are not possible to organize, there are several options. Depending on the specific individual needs, a specific educational plan is developed, where adaptations can be made, varying from simple changes of aims and/or contents to an alternative individual curriculum that leads to a diploma of specific competencies in those fields.

Ministry of Work and Solidarity has Rehabilitation Centres, from it's own (2) or sponsored (almost 40) all over the country, where special training is provided. Some institutions also organise supported employment for adults that cannot attend special training.

New activities, which start at school within the school curricula, preparing for adult life, are being organised during the recent years according to some recommendations that were made by Ministry of Education with the collaboration of other governmental services and representatives of Parents and NGO for this purpose in 1995.

On the other hand, the demand of work by handicapped persons (from 16 to 64 years old) has increased in recent years (from 1996 to 1999) and from the total of 478 214 persons, 227 485 are already employed, 7 025 are in training (Rehab. Cent), 3 339 in occupational activities, 1 573 are in the Secondary Schools and 486 in Higher Education. The number of inactive handicapped persons is still big: 238 306. (Data from National Rehabilitation Secretariat, 1998 and Employment Institute 1999)

The training of professionals in education is organised by a national programme for in-service training of teachers with the support of the European Commission (FOCO), through which local actions for mainstream and support teachers are implemented, as well as for directors of establishments, inspectors and other experts and educational key persons.
Several institutions are allowed to organise in-service training, such as schools for higher education and universities and several other teacher-training institutes. In 1996, Ministry of Education organised in-service training of teachers in very specific areas, such as early intervention, multiple handicaps, cognitive problems, communication problems, sign language, low vision, orientation and mobility, Braille code, transition to active life and educational orientation.

In recent years Special schools have adopted a clear attitude to support the social and educational integration process of pupils with special educational needs. The special schools develop an increasing number of activities to support integration such as projects of co-operation with mainstream schools, sharing special technical resources and developing complementary activities.

The opinion of parents generally expresses a positive attitude towards the integration of their children in mainstream schools. However, the majority of parents seem to remain passive, because special schools offer an attractive set of activities, like transport and activities with a social character (leisure time activities) so the pupils call spend more time at school than in mainstream schools.

As society is being more and more prepared to accept the integration of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools, barriers to integration are felt as not so harmful. In fact, there is a widespread acceptance of integration in Portugal, but there are still some obstacles for achieving integration of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools in Portugal, such as some physical and architectonic obstacles.