Schooling of disabled children and the children with special educational needs: tendencies of development and criteria for regulation

Schooling of disabled children and the children with special educational needs:
tendencies of development and criteria for regulation


Kulagina E.V.

Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Leading Researcher, Laboratory for Socio-Economic Issues of Human Development and Quality of Life, Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow, Russia elkulagina@yandex.ru

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For citation:

Kulagina E.V. Schooling of disabled children and the children with special educational needs: tendencies of development and criteria for regulation. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2015. No 9. P. 94-101




Abstract

On the basis of public statistical data on general education in Moscow and Russian Federation the article analyzes current problems in the sphere of schooling disabled children as well as children with special educational needs: numerucal reduction of special schools, job cuts among teaching and medical staff and transferring children to home education. Author argues that a special feature of Russian social educational politics is contraposition of disabled children to children with special educational needs, which means that these groups should be considered and regulated separately. Factor to decrease availability of quality education is limited resources of Russian regions. In each of them quantity of disabled children and children with special educational needs as well as the quantity of special educational, medical and social institutions differ. Conclusion is made that because of high regional inequalities, implementation of the governmental guarantees should be controlled with due consideration of regional indices. Among them are numbers of disabled children and children with special educational needs, who are taught in special schools, in special classes, in common classes (inclusion) and at home; and, besides, – proportion between the quantity of children and the quantity of teaching/medical staff. An important point is control of education availability for children with special educational needs as well as disabled children with differing disabilities. Some disabled children happen to be outside of the area of legal regulations and statistical surveys.


Keywords
Schooling; disabled children; children with special educational needs; special education; modernization of education
Content No 9, 2015