End of year review
Government and LEA trends
Plans for local education authorities to develop inclusion continued apace in 2000 with financial input from the Government to improve accessibility to school buildings and the curriculum. Inclusion plans covered children with emotional difficulties as well as those with physical and learning difficulties.
Proposed closures of special schools were announced in many areas. In Coventry it was stated that the Governments inclusion policy was likely to lead to all of the city’s 11 special schools closing. In Tunbridge Wells a special school became a primary school as part of a reorganisation of special needs provision and elsewhere there was emphasis on the value of links between mainstream and special schools. Other authorities announcing reorganisation plans involving reviews of special schools included Lambeth, Norwich, Greenwich, Barnsley, Gloucestershire, Plymouth, Blackpool, Southend and Sandwell. Bolton education chiefs promised that after a five year period of mainstream development, all parents of disabled children could have a place in mainstream schools if they wanted it. A similar promise was made by Hounslow. Warwickshire had its proposed special needs reorganisation plan turned down by Government but campaigners in Gloucestershire failed to convince the Government that it should reject inclusion plans in that authority.
Meanwhile Government continued to emphasise the need for special schools leading to criticism that its thinking on inclusion was muddled. Graham Barton, chairman of the the Gloucestershire Special Schools Protection League, said:’On one hand they are saying inclusion is the cornerstone and in the next breath they are saying special schools are very important’.
Mainstream developments
Mainstream schools were asked to adopt a new approach to inclusion which concentrated on identifying barriers to learning in schools rather than ‘special needs’ or deficits in children.
The ‘Index for Inclusion’ published by the Centre For Studies on Inclusive Education in March was sent to all 26,000 English primary and secondary schools. According to the publication, which guides schools through a process of inclusive development, the language of ‘special needs education’ is a potential barrier to inclusive practice. The Index blames the label for focusing on students’ problems and deflecting attention from barriers to learning and participation within the school system. It challenges schools to examine their own part in excluding children from education.
There was also a warning that while classroom assistants working alongside teachers were a welcome development for inclusion, worrying trends which could lead to further segregation were emerging. This happened when assistants were inappropriately attached to individual children rather than providing extra support to classes as a whole. Concerns were also expressed that introducing classroom assistants to replace lost support teacher posts would not provide the same quality of education.
A report to mark the start of Autism Week in May found that children with autism and Asperger syndrome were 20 times more likely to be excluded from school than their peers. The report found that teachers across the UK send home autistic children of all abilities because they lack the necessary expertise, time and specialist support.
Research from Portsmouth University due to be published in Autumn was said to show that teenagers with Down’s Syndrome progressed much better in mainstream secondary schools than in special schools. According to lead researcher, Professor Sue Buckley, ‘We show that there has been almost no progress in special schools since the 1980s. We can not see any reason for any child being there.’
Legislative moves
The introduction into Parliament of the Special Educational Needs and Disability in Education Bill was a major event in 2000. The Bill sought to extend anti-discrimination legislation to cover education and make it illegal not to take reasonable steps to accommodate disabled students. The setting up of the Disability Rights Commission was also an important development. Bert Massie, 51, formerly director of the Royal Society for Disability and Rehabilitation, became the Commission’s first chair.
A record £254,362 compensation for stress was awarded to a teacher who was forced to cope single-handedly with 11 special needs and disturbed children in a mainstream class. The teacher warned that there were thousands of other teachers ‘just as needy’ struggling to integrate special needs and disturbed children without the necessary resources.
In December, teenager Kimbeley Jhally, who has learning difficulties, was elected to the UK Youth Parliament. Kimbeley, who represents the Canterbury and Swale area, had already spoken in the House of Commons. Her manifesto tackled such hard hitting issues as drug and alcohol abuse and stamping out pollution. She said:’I have trouble with reading and writing but I am determined never to let that stop me doing things’.
Family struggles
Cases continued of disabled children being sent to special schools against the wishes of their families and there were also complaints of children being forced to attend mainstream schools.
In Kent a five-year-old autistic boy had to be educated at home while education officials tried to resolve difficulties over his request for a mainstream school. Single mother Karen Hart withdrew her daughter from mainstream school complaining she could not cope, even though Oxfordshire education chiefs said they had done everything possible to cater for her special needs. In Lambeth a mother complained that the Council’s special needs reorganisation had led to her son having to change schools twice in two years causing unreasonable strain. In Pinner, London, a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome was permanently excluded from school because of ‘unpredictable and aggressive behaviour’. According to his mother the school could not provide enough support for her son and he ‘wasn’t given a chance’. Zahrah Manuel, of West Hampstead, London, eventually won her long struggle for a mainstream secondary placement following a hearing in the High Court. Her mother said:’I just wanted her to have an ordinary good life and not be isolated or over protected.’
A brother and sister won a legal battle against their mother who sent them to a school for severely disabled children because she was convinced, against medical advice, that they were autistic. Three Scottish appeal court judge backed a ruling by a sheriff that the mother was seriously impairing her children’s development. He found that the 14-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl could cope with ordinary school.
