Special needs education
Special needs education concerns children and young people with special educational requirements. These children and young people benefit from special measures for their education (from birth to their 20th birthday). They have a right to special schooling and support from specialists in early childhood special needs education, scholastic special needs education, language therapy or psychomotor therapy. There is a special educational requirement for children and young people, where it is ascertained, that development is restricted or hazarded, or that they are unable to meet the usual school standards without special support. In addition, special needs education applies to children and young people, who are shown to have great difficulty in social competence, as well as in learning and performance abilities. The cantons are responsible for the education of children and young people with special educational needs.
Evaluation, diagnosis and decision
There are specific agencies in the cantons (including school psychological services) that provide case evaluation, diagnosis, guidance counselling and treatment. Special needs schooling is offered after an application, an evaluation of the case and an admittance decision. Applications may be made, in the first instance, by teachers, physicians, special services (e.g. school psychological services), school authorities and guardianship authorities.
In most cantons, the school psychological services, child and adolescent psychological services, or other specialists are responsible for making the evaluations.
The decision as to whether a child with special education needs will attend a normal school (integrative schooling) or a special needs school is made according to the standardised evaluation procedure. This procedure is used in order to systematically record various information about the child. Here, the intention is not for individual characteristics (e.g. an impairment) to trigger measures, but for the actual needs to be determined on the basis of transparent developmental and educational goals. The evaluation is made in two standardised process steps (basic evaluation and needs evaluation). In turn, these steps are subdivided into individual elements and are applied when collecting data from various sources of information.
The standardised evaluation procedure enables those who use it (school psychological service, evaluation agency) to make a comprehensive, multi-dimensional evaluation and it constitutes an initial basis for targeted support in the intended setting. The standardised evaluation procedure is applied if the locally available resources for special needs education are insufficient and additional resources have to be provided for education and training. This procedure serves the cantons primarily as a basis for decision-making upon arrangement of enhanced special needs education measures.
The introduction of the standardised evaluation procedure dispenses with the disability insurance criteria, which previously were based primarily on limits. Now, when determining requirements, attention is paid to the developmental and educational goals of the children and young people.
Responsibility
In Switzerland, the adequate schooling of children and adolescents with special education needs and disabilities is laid down in law. Since 2008, special needs education has solely been the task of the cantons. This means that the cantons are responsible for the content, legalities and financing of special needs schooling. Due to this new task allocation, each canton is obliged to define the special needs education that it offers, along with the corresponding measures, in a special needs education concept.
Types of special needs schooling
Early childhood special needs education attends to children with disabilities or whose development is delayed, impaired or threatened. The supportive measures can be realised within a family context from the birth of the child until up to two years after entry into school.
Integrative schoolingIn integrative schooling, children or adolescents with special education needs are integrated into a class at a normal school, on either a full-time or part-time basis by using the special education measures offered by the school and / or by arranging enhanced measures according to the standardised evaluation procedure (integrative special needs schooling).
Special needs classesIn special needs classes, only a reduced number of pupils are admitted, whose development is threatened or who, because of their difficulties (e.g. behavioural or learning difficulties) are likely to be unable to follow the lessons in a normal school. Special needs classes represent a type of schooling between normal and special needs schooling. However, special needs classes are only held in individual cantons.
Special needs schoolA special needs school is part of the compulsory education level and specialises in certain types of disability or learning difficulties and behavioural difficulties. Special needs schools only admit children and adolescents who have a need for enhanced measures, as established in the standardised evaluation procedure. They are subject to a cantonal approval procedure. They can also be combined with the provision of residential accommodation or with the provision of care in school-based day-care facilities.
Educational therapeutic services such as language therapy and psychomotor therapyLinguistic disorders, speech disorders, voice disorders and communication disorders are diagnosed and treated in language therapy. Psychomotor therapy addresses the interplay between perception, feeling, thinking, movement and behaviour, as well as the physical expression thereof. In both of these educational therapeutic services, the therapeutic measures necessary are planned, implemented and evaluated.
Learning objectives and requirements
The learning objectives and requirements pertaining to children and adolescents with special education needs are individually tailored to suit the abilities of the respective pupil. Essentially, they depend on the type of disability: a sensory or physical deficiency does not automatically mean that cognitive learning is also impaired. In such cases, special teaching material and aids are provided in order to facilitate satisfaction of the requirements and objectives of the normal school. In other cases, where the impairment of a pupil's development and learning ability does not allow an orientation based on the normal school's curricula, the set learning objectives are geared towards maximum independence and the best possible social integration in particular. In both types of case, the learning objectives for each child are oriented towards the optimal balance between maximum development of the potential (on the cognitive level and in general) of the child or adolescent and simultaneous promotion of self-realisation. Each school type (special needs school or integrative schooling) strives to achieve this balance.
To an increasing extent, learning content, learning objectives and even development itself are laid down in writing within individual development plans drawn up by an interdisciplinary group of experts considering the respective child or adolescent. This approach requires good coordination and cooperation between the various parties involved, who meet regularly in order to reassess and adapt the objectives.
Assessment of pupils
The preferred assessment method in special needs education is a continual and formative assessment which enables regular feedback for pupils and parents. The development of the child or adolescent is recorded in a report at the end of the school year or half-year. Examinations or grades at the end of the year are rather rare. Those pupils who are integrated into normal schools and who follow the normal curriculum are assessed in the same way as their fellow pupils. Pupils with disabilities can, however, request the compensation of disadvantages (e.g. extension of the time allowed to sit an examination; support from a third person [e.g. sign-language interpreters in oral examinations for pupils with a hearing disability]; adapting examination media or the form of examination).