Special Education Needs provision within Mainstream
Education (Students
with specific need of ed. support)
Definition of the target group
According to the Spanish Education
System's attention to diversity model, measures for meeting students’ needs in
mainstream education schools range from the more ordinary to the completely
extraordinary nature ones. Therefore, when these measures' target groups are
defined, students attending schools as a whole and those with specific need of
educational support are both taken into account. For further information about
attention to diversity model see the article Educational support and guidance.
According to the 2006 Education Act,
students with specific need of educational support are those:
•With special education needs related
to physical, psychic or sensory disability, or severe behavioral disorder.
•With specific language difficulties.
•Highly gifted.
•With needs resulting from a late
entry into the Spanish Education System.
Attention to diversity measures
According to the guidelines
established by the Ministry of Education, the autonomous education Authorities
draw up attention to diversity plans in order to implement education measures
and actions allowing the maximum adaptation of the teaching-learning processes
to the whole students’ characteristics. These plans include both ordinary and
extraordinary measures.
Attention to diversity ordinary
measures
Ordinary measures are those having an
impact on the school general organisation, such as the organisation of the
students groups; the strategies favoring universal accessibility and allowing
complete and active students’ participation when learning (access to spaces,
curriculum and resources, hosting activities, promotion of actions aimed at
students socialisation and the diversity appreciation, support and supporting
activities organization, absenteeism and early school dropout prevention);
tutor and guidance activity; spaces use; coordination and teamwork between the
different professionals and collaborators at school and in the classrooms, and
the participation of external agents to the school in socioeducational actions;
as well as guidance, training and family mediation actions favoring families
rapprochement to schools, making possible families’ implication in their
children’s education process and, if necessary, integrating families into the
social context.
Likewise, these ordinary measures
include prevention and detection of learning difficulties; implementation of
reinforcement and support mechanisms; individualised attention; adaptation to
the different learning rhythms; support in the classroom, groups splitting and
flexible groups; selection and implementation of different resources and
methodological strategies; non-significant curricular adaptations; adjustement
of curriculum materials; activities for assessing studies adapted to students;
and the foreseen optional subjects in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO). For
further information about the ESO, see the article Teaching and Learning in
General Lower Secondary Education.
Attention to diversity extraordinary
measures
Extraordinary measures are aimed at
meeting the most specific education needs of the students and they complement
the ordinary ones in many cases. Target groups are students who, for different
reasons, find more difficulties for learning than the rest, and that is why
they require an educational attention different to the ordinary one and the
establishment of specific resources for educational attention. The
implementation of these measures requires a previous diagnosis of the students'
education needs through the psychopedagogical evaluation made by the guidance
specialised services. In addition, it is necessary a continuous monitoring in
order to adapt the decisions taken and allow these students an access as wide
as possible to the curriculum and to the mainstream schooling.
These extraordinary measures are only
applied in compulsory education (students from 6 to 16 years old). The main
measures are the following ones:
•Significant curricular adaptations.
It implies the modification of the ordinary curriculum essentials aspects:
goals, contents and evaluation criteria, in order to adapt it to the most
specific needs of the students.
•Curricular diversification
programmes. They are aimed at students in 3rd and 4rd year of the ESO. The
access is also possible for those students having studied 2nd year of the ESO
but who are not in a position to promote to 3rd year and who have already
repeated a school year in this level. Students are expected to reach the
general goals of the level and to get the degree of Graduado en Educación
Secundaria Obligatoria. These programmes' teaching is organised in two specific
fields, one with a scientific-technological nature, and another with a
socio-linguistic nature. It is also possible to establish a practical field.
The didactic methodology has a global approach allowing the adjustment to the
students needs.
•Initial Vocational Qualification
Programmes (IQVP). These are programmes created with the purpose of enhancing
the social, educational and work insertion of those students over 16 years who
have not got the degree of Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. As an
exception, this age can be reduced to 15 for those having studied 2nd year of
ESO but who are not in a position to promote to 3rd year and who have already
repeated once in this level. IQVP include three kinds of modules: specific
modules, providing students with training in a professional profile; mainstream
training modules, aimed at developing their basic competences and promoting
transition from school to work; and modules leading to the obtaining of the
degree of Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, which are voluntary,
except for students aged 15 abovementioned. Among the different modalities to
be adopted by these programmes, it must be included a specific offer for youths
with special education needs who, even having an appropriate level of personal
and social skills in order to access a workplace, cannot integrate into a
mainstream modality.
•Making the stay in the education
level more flexible. This measure has to be concreted for each profile of
student with specific needs of educational support.
Attention to diversity measures
depending on the target group
The ordinary and extraordinary
measures previously described adapt to each target group as explained below:
Students with special education needs
associated to disability or severe behavioral disorder
The answer given to these students
consists of providing them with the necessary support for keeping on learning.
In many cases these students require to adapt the curriculum elements to their
needs and/or to have an easier access to the contents through technical helps.
These measures are concreted in:
•Significant curricular adaptations.
They mean the adaptation of the essential elements of the curriculum (goals,
contents and evaluation criteria) to adjust them to the students needs. In
these cases, the support teachers of the schools -maestros specialised in
Therapeutic Pedagogy or in Hearing and Speech- reinforce the work of the
teachers in charge of the students teaching. For further information see the
chapter of Teachers and Education Staff.
•Adaptations for accessing the
curriculum. It allows changes or resources forecasts, both personal and
material, in order to ensure that students with some access difficulties attend
mainstream curriculum. They are based on technical support, alternative
communication systems or the removal of architectural obstacles.
•Special Education Classrooms in
mainstream education. They are adapted cluster programmes aimed at the students
with severe physical, psychological or sensory disabilities, or severe
personality or behavioral disorders. The very significant adaptations required
are carried out in a specific classroom in the ordinary school, but they are
compatible with their participation in some school activities, which favors
their adaptation and social integration.
•Reduction in the number of students
per classroom. The number of students in the classroom is reduced when there
are students with special education needs.
•Educational support by specialised
teachers (Therapeutic Pedagogy Maestros and Hearing and Speech Maestros). This
support is possible inside or outside the classroom, individually or in small
group, depending on the student needs and on the basis of the curricular
adaptation made.
•More flexible stay in the education
level. Students with special education needs can stay one year more than
expected for the rest of students not only in Primary Education, but also in
Compulsory Secondary Education.
Students with learning difficulties:The
most frequent learning difficulties are those related to oral language, reading
(reading retardation and/or dyslexia), writing and calculus. Generally, the
most used measures for attending this kind of students are those related to
materials and diversified resources, supporting groups and methodological
strategies. In fact, there are not big differences between measures applied and
different learning difficulties.
Highly gifted students: Generally, the
Education System offers the possibility to make the stay in the education level
more flexible as an answer for these students, anticipating schooling or
reducing its length. Also, some curricular widening and enrichment adaptations
are carried out, whose final goal is the harmonious development of these
students’ abilities.
Students with late entry into the
Education System: Generally, the measures provided by the Education System for
these students are aimed at the development of specific programmes so as to
meet lacks in language, basic competences or essential knowledge, with the
purpose of making their integration into the corresponding year easier. The
development of these programmes is simultaneous to the students’ schooling in
mainstream education. In addition, the Education System takes the necessary
measures for the students’ parents or tutors to receive the required guidance
and get a complete reception in the system.
These measures are the following ones:
•Programmes teaching the language of
host society, as a necessary tool for accessing to every curricular subject. It
includes two kinds of measures:Linguistic classrooms, aimed at providing the
students with the necessary linguistic competence for entering mainstream
education. The student does not stay at class during all the school day: it
depends on his/her needs; and Linguistic and curricular reinforcement
activities.
•Host Programmes: addressed not only
to foreign students, but also to all those students who incorporate late into
the Education System. These programmes include some previous measures for
preparing the school for the arrival of new students, such as the inclusion of
intercultural education values into the proyecto educativo, teachers training
in those values, adaptation of the school resources or preparation of
informative documents in several languages. Therefore, they tackle linguistic,
curricular, attitudinal and contextual aspects.
•Programmes for teaching native
language and culture: they are aimed at students from other countries for them
to keep on studying their native language while learning host language. Many
times they are carried out in collaboration with the hosting country and with
public non-profit-making bodies. Generally, courses are developed out of school
hours, although some Autonomous Communities are studying some initiatives for
including these studies in their curricula. In addition, some Autonomous
Communities promote all students' access
to these studies, not only the immigrant ones.
•Information to immigrant families on
the Spanish Education System and promotion of their participation in their
children’s education process and in the activities developed by the education
community. On this manner, they receive the necessary advice about their
rights, duties and opportunities, not only concerning the education field, but
also other useful resources of the education environment.
•Creation of support services for
intercultural mediation, and translating and interpreting services. They are
generallyl services external to the schools, and their running and scope depend
on the autonomous and local resources, and on the school needs.
•Measures supporting teaching
function: either by incorporating other professional profiles as support (in
and outside the classroom), or by specific training and resources related to
interculturality and working with foreign students.
•Making stay at the education level
more flexible. Students who enter late into the Education System with a gap in
their curricular competence of more than 2 years or an education stage can be
enrolled in the previous year to that age-appropiate.
•Reduction of groups’ size in the
classroom.
Separate Special Education Needs provision in Early
Childhood and School Education (Students with specific need of ed. support)
Definition of the target
group:
Separate Special Education Needs
schools attend students with special education needs that have a minimum level
of adaptation and inclusion into mainstream education, because of their severe
physical, psychic, sensory disabilities, or personality or behavioral
disorders.
Attention to special
education needs in special education schools
Controlling school admission and
choice:
Students with special education needs
attend mainstream education and their admission requirements are similar to the
ones established at general level, with the exceptions set up by each
Autonomous Community in their special education regulations. For further
information about the control of students’ admission at general level and
school choice by families see the article Organisation of Programmes for
Children over 2-3 years.
The services responsible for the
psychopedagogic evaluation are in charge of establishing the most appropriate
education modality, taking into account the parents or guardians’ opinion. In
any case, the adscription of a student to a separate special education needs
school must be decided upon a transitional basis and must be periodically
reviewed with the aim of favoring the access to a higher integration regime.
Nowadays special education needs
schools are considered as an educational alternative when students with special
education needs cannot be accepted in mainstream education schools. Their
education in these schools must meet the following criteria: special education
needs related to a disability which cannot be attended in mainstream education,
highly significant needs for adaptation, impossibility of integrating in
mainstream education and a schooling report of the specialised guidance service
certifying their attendance.
Parents or guardians’ opinion is taken
into account during all the education process. Usually, when parents or
guardians do not agree with the education proposal carried out by the guidance
services, inspectorate services are responsible for taking a decision, after
having listened to family or guardians’ opinion. For further information about
the education inspectorate services see the article Quality Assurance in Early
Childhood and School Education.
Students’ age and groups:
In separate special education schools
there are two education levels: Compulsory Basic Education (from 6 to 16 years
old) and Transition to Adult Life Programmes (from 16 to 19 years old). In
addition, some schools offer the second cycle of Pre-Primary Education (from 3
to 6 years old). For further information about the studies of second cycle of
Pre-Primary Education see the section Teaching and Learning in Programmes for
Children over 2-3 years. Students can stay at school until 21 years old at the
most.
Groups’ organisation is flexible,
according to criteria of educational needs criteria, not of age. The number of
students per classroom varies among the different Autonomous Communities,
although it is usually around five students per classroom.
Curriculum
Generally, students attending special
education schools require very significant curricular adaptations in almost
every subject of the curriculum. In Compulsory Basic Education, in order to
carry out this adaptations the curriculum established at state and autonomous
level is used as a reference for ordinary schools.
Studies in special education schools
are organised according to the following structure:
Compulsory Basic Education
(EBO by its Spanish initials):
This education level comes from 6 to
16 years old. It lasts 10 years and students may have the same extensions than
the one established for mainstream education.
The competences established in the
curriculum goals for Primary Education for each subject are taken as a
reference for establishing EBO curriculum. Depending on students’ needst, it is
possible to include competences from other education levels, e.g. from
Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO). For further information about the
curriculum of Primary Education and ESO see the articles Teaching and Learning
in Primary Education and Teaching and Learning in General Lower Secondary
Education, respectively. Competences related to professional performance and
social inclusion increase their importance in the last years of education.
Compulsory Basic Education is
organised in cycles constituting planning units. A Curricular Planning is drawn
up taking into consideration the differential educational needs of the
different groups of students. This Planing includes general goals for each
level, curricular subjects, contents, cross-curricular topics, methodological
criteria, evaluation and promotion criteria, criteria for evaluating teachers
function, didactic resources and materials and individualised curricular
adaptations.
Transition to Adult Life
Programmes (TVA by its Spanish initials):
They are aimed at students aged 16 or
over and having studied Compulsory Basic Education in a special education
school or at those ones being the age required and whose special education
needs make advisable to keep their training through these programmes. They are
organised in one single two-year cycle and they can be extended if the
student’s education process requires it or when the environment work
possibilities recommend it. The goals to pursue are the following ones:
•To consolidate and develop students’
abilities, in their physical, emotional, cognitive, communicative, moral, civic
and social inclusion aspects, promoting the higher possible degree of personal
autonomy and social inclusion.
•To enhance students’ participation in
all the contexts where adult life takes place: home life, use of community
services and enjoyment one’s leisure and free time, among others.
•To promote the development of safety
work attitudes at job, a positive attitude towards work tasks and basic rules,
as well as the acquisition of work skills with an multipurpose nature.
•To promote basic instrumental
knowledge, acquired during basic education, consolidating communicative and
numerical skills as well as abilities for reasoning and problems solving in
daily life, and develop students’ creativity.
•To boost habits related to body
health, personal safety and emotional balance, in order to develop their life
with the greatest possible well-being.
The election of students with special
education needs of one out of the mentioned modalities must be preceded by a
psychopedagogic evaluation made by the Guidance Departments or the Education
and Psychopedagogic Guidance Teams, depending on the situation. For further
information about these guidance services see the article Guidance and
Counselling in Early Childhood and School Education. In any case, students and
parents’ opinion is taken into account, and the corresponding mandatory report
from the Education Inspectorate is required.
The curriculum is open and flexible.
Teaching is organised in experience fields (personal autonomy in daily life
field, social and community inclusion field and work skills and abilities
field) and it is mainly aimed at students’ acquisition of communicative and
motor skills: signs recognition, alternative communication systems (Braille,
PCS, pictograms), etc.
Teaching methods and materials
Separate special education schools
provide students with a methodological attention based on the principles of
education intervention established with a general nature and adapted to the
this kind of students circumstances. Methodology takes into account the
following criteria:
•To start from the student’s level of
development, paying attention to their intellectual, communicative and
linguistic, socio-emotional and motor features.
•To guarantee significant learning for
being applied in their daily activities and working as a basis for accessing
later learning and making possible students to carry out a significant learning
in an autonomous way.
•To promote the principle of both
physical and intellectual activity through the teacher and/or other classmates
while learning.
When the students’ special needs
require it, it is necessary to apply the corresponding technical support.
Teaching methods and materials include Communication and Information
Technologies, mainly in the aspects related to communicative skills
acquisition. All the schools have the necessary material for meeting students’
needs. Generally, these schools are prepared to attend the different
disabilities, although in some Autonomous Communities there are schools dealing
with specific disabilities.
Assessment
The assessment of students attending
special education schools adapts depending on their features and development.
So, evaluation criteria must be modified in order to adjust them to the
adaptations made in goals and contents.
The assessment of students’ progress
foreseen in their corresponding curricular programmes or in their adjustments
must be made by the teacher-tutor (Maestro therapeutic pedagogy specialist), in
collaboration with the rest of the professionals implied in the development of
each student’s programme. Among these professionals there are the Maestro
Listening and Speech specialist (speech therapist), the physical therapist and
the school counsellor (education psychologist, psychologist or pedagogue). For
further information about the Maestros specialists and other education staff
see the chapters Teachers and Education Staff and Management and Other
Education Staff, respectively.
Promotion
Teaching teams have autonomy for
establishing the criteria they consider the most outstanding ones when taking a
decision about students’ promotion. Criteria must have a diverse nature, so the
decision should be taken according to those variables that can have a critical
importance for the students’ future.
Promotion or grade retention decisions
have an individual nature, but this does not prevent from establishing general
measures supporting the individualised decision. The methodology and
organisation of the school are also some variables to be taken into account
when deciding on student promotion. Other important aspect is to decide in
which cycle or year grade retention would be more convenient, and determine,
for each cycle or year, the basic learning allowing the student to keep on
making progress in the learning process.
There is the possibility for students
to develop a modality of integration or combined school enrolment (attendance
to the ordinary school and to the special education school), after having
passed a psychopedagogic evaluation based on their special needs and inclusion
possibilities.
Students can attend to school until 21
years old at the most.
Certification
When students with special education
needs attending to separate special education schools finish their schooling,
the school gives them a certificate. This certificate is not-mandatory, it is
confidential and includes the years studied and some guidance advice about
their academic and professional future.
Support Measures for learners in Early Childhood and
School Education
(Students in disadvantaged situation)
Definition of the target
group
The 2006 Education Act establishes the
need for developing compensatory actions with regard to people, groups or
territorial fields that may be in a disadvantageous situation due to social,
economic, cultural, geographic or ethnics factors, or due to any other
circumstance. Because of these factors, students may have a significant
curricular delay and/or difficulties for adapting to the school.
Specific support measures:
With the purpose of applying the
principle of equality in the exercise of the right to Education, political
Authorities carry out compensatory actions in relation to the mentioned target
groups and provide the necessary economic resources and support.
The attention to these groups implies
adjustments in the Education System, so that, with a preventive approach,
inequalities will be avoided in the future. These adjustments are a part in the
continuous of attention to diversity measures that is developed at schools. For
this reason, the major part of the measures for attending students’ educational
needs in mainstream education are used to attend disadvantaged students,
although other kind of specific actions can be added. For further information
about these measures, see the article Special Education Needs Provision within
Mainstream Education.
The actions aimed at disadvantaged
students are implemented in all the Autonomous Communities, and their
regulation is made through the decrees on curricular organisation for Primary
and Secondary Education levels. In addition, some education Authorities develop
specific regulations on this field, whether at a general level and/or aimed at
a specific group. These actions are defined as follows:
Schooling
•Measures aimed at guaranteeing the
most suitable conditions for schooling in Pre-Primary Education level. For this
purpose, the second cycle of Pre-Primary Education (from 3 to 6 years old) is
set as free. In addition, education Authorities are paying special attention to
the progressive increase of publicly-funded places in the first cycle of
Pre-Primary Education (from 0 to 3 years old), with the goal of increase
schooling rate. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the plan Educa3, aimed at
boosting the creation of new public places for children between 0-3 years old.
•Providing schools with human and
material resources so as to compensate the situation of disadvantaged students.
When students present curricular lag and can be at risk of educational exclusion,
they receive curricular support from specialised teachers, that is, “Teachers
of Compensatory Education”. These professionals can act in different
modalities, as support in subjects or areas in or out the classroom, or through
the creation of specific groups or classrooms for the students with serious
problems for adapting to school. Likewise, for the schools attending this kind
of students, it is possible to reduce the size of the groups in the classroom.
•Compensation plans at schools.
Schools attending disadvantaged students develop compensatory plans that
include actions for exploiting environment resources, such as intercultural
mediation services, supporting the opening of school libraries out of school
hours, etc. Likewise, these schools draw up programs against school
absenteeism, mainly aimed at specific target groups, such as Roma students.
Scholarships and study
grants
Students with unfavourable economic
conditions have the right to obtain scholarships and study grants. The Spanish
Ministry of Education establishes, funded from the General State Budget, a
general grants system so as to cover travel expenses, urban transport,
residence, didactic material and tax exemption, and compensatory scholarships
and study grants aimed at covering the lack of work income. In addition, there
ara other modalities of grants, such as maintenance grants, for youth at risk
of school dropout.
For further information about
scholarships and study grants see the article Early Childhood and School
Education Funding.
Equal opportunities in rural world and
organisational alternatives for itinerant and hospitalized students
Students in rural areas
The education Authorities of the
Autonomous Communities are in charge of providing the necessary means and
organisational systems in order to attend the needs of the rural world. In some
rural areas, students attend to schools in municipalities nearby their home so
as to guarantee the education quality. In these cases, the education Authority
provides free transport services and, depending on the situation, school
canteen and boarding school services.
In addition, there is the education
modality called Colegio Rural Agrupado, consisting of grouping, from the
organisational point of view, in a single one several schools spread out in
nearby towns with small population groups, allowing students to stay in their
towns of origin. In these schools there are a staff of itinerant teachers
covering the specialities foreseen in regulations. They have one single
governing body and the teachers board is composed by all the maestros attending
the different schools. In addition, the Programación general anual and the
Proyecto educativo are the same ones for all the grouped schools.
Itinerant students
These students cannot follow a regular
schooling process due to the itinerant work of their families (circus workers,
fair-goers, field pickers or similar). The
education Authorities of the Autonomous Communities put into place a
series of measures assuring their schooling, such as the creation of supportive
itinerant units; schooling programmes and education support for students coming
from seasonal work groups; and provision of a permanent teacher with the basic
didactic resources.
Schooling of children of agricultural
seasonal workers can be made in the existing schools of the hosting area, that
may count with the incorporation and the support of teachers staff, or in
prefabricated classrooms that are attended, during the months that the job
lasts, by teachers belonging to the compensatory education programme. This is a
way of creating a minimum infrastructure of services in the residence area.
Hospitalized students
The Autonomous Communities are in
charge of organising diverse alternatives (services, centres and special units)
that make possible to carry out the educational process for those students who
cannot attend school because of medical prescription, as well as for the
students hospitalized for a long time.
