The Legislative Context of Inclusion

Salmanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education
The principle of inclusive education was adopted at the World Conference on Special Needs Education in 1994. A Framework for Action was adopted to inform international policy and practice. The Salamanca Statement in paragraph 2 declares:
· every child has a fundamental right to education and must be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of learning.
· every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs.
· education systems should be designed and educational programmes implemented to take into account the wide diversity of these characteristics and needs.
· those who have special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should accommodate them within a child-centred pedagogy capable of meeting those needs.
· regular schools with this inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.
The Introduction to Framework for Action Paragraph 3 states:
· Schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social and emotional, linguistic or other conditions.

Children Scotland Act 1995 (Section 23)
Services for children with a disability or affected by the disability of a family member, must be designed to:
· Minimise the effect of the disability on the disabled child.
· Minimise the effect of the disability, of a child adversely affected by the disability of another family member.
· Give those children "the opportunity to lead lives which are as normal as possible."

Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000
· Right to Education -Established, for the first time in Scotland, the legal right of every child of school age to school education. (Section 1)
· Purpose of Education - Education is to be directed to the “development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person to their fullest potential” – (Section 2(1))
· Presumption of mainstream - Introduced for the first time, the notion that it would be presumed that children would be educated in a mainstream school, unless one of the following three specific circumstances could be proved:
i where a mainstream school would not be suited to the ability or aptitude of
the child;
ii where provision of education to the child in a mainstream school would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education to those with whom the child would be educated;
iii where the placing of the child in a mainstream school would result in unreasonable public expenditure being incurred that would not ordinarily be incurred.
It is also stated that these circumstances shall be presumed to arise only exceptionally. (Section 15)
· The National Priorities in Education – Section 4 established that Scottish Ministers, after consultation with education authorities, will publish national priorities in education.
Currently the five National Priorities in education are:

• Achievement and Attainment
• Framework for Learning
• Inclusion and Equality
• Values and Citizenship
• Learning for Life

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA)
This Act introduces the right for disabled students not to be discriminated against in education. It amended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and extended it to cover every aspect of education. This makes it unlawful to discriminate against pupils with a disability. It requires that reasonable adjustments be made to the curriculum and teaching practices to accommodate pupils covered by the Act. This act is anticipatory, meaning schools have to prepare for the education of disabled pupils/students, even if they currently do not have any pupils/students with disabilities.

Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils’ educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002
This Act applies only to Scotland. It places a “planning duty” on local education authorities to plan ahead for
pupils with disabilities. Each local education authority has to have an Accessibility Strategy covering three
areas:
· Access to the curriculum- modifications, elaborations and adaptations
· Access to physical environment-including adaptations to buildings
· Access to information- all school information should be provided in accessible formats.
Each Accessibility Strategy should set out the local education authority’s priorities and plans to improve
accessibility of schools over time. There must also be consultation with pupils, parents, teachers, school boards and other interested parties.

Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004
This act replaces the 1980 Act SEN framework (including the Record of Needs system) and came into effect in November 2005
It introduces the new concept of Additional Support Needs which is intended to be much broader than simply “special educational needs” and is deemed to apply where “..the child or young person is, or is likely to be, unable without the provision of additional support to benefit from school education…”
Additional support needs can arise from any factor which causes a barrier to learning. The definition of
Additional Support is “…provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children, or as the case may be, young persons of the same age in schools (other than special schools)….”
Main Provisions:
· New duties on Education Authorities to identify and address individual needs
· Duties on other agencies (e.g. health authorities)
· Rights for parents to request an assessment, information and support.
· New arrangements for planning to meet children’s needs, including co-ordinated support plans for children who meet the criteria for these.
· New arrangements for resolving disputes, including advocacy, mediation, independent adjudication and Additional Support Needs Tribunal.