Schools improving at looking after special needs pupils

Stuff reports:

Most schools are catering better for students with special needs, according to a recent report.

The ERO report released yesterday, Inclusive practices for students with special needs in schools, found almost 80 per cent in its sample were “mostly inclusive”. The Ministry of Education says inclusive practice is when schools “adapt to fit the student rather than making the student adapt to fit the school”. …

The latest report ranked 78 per cent of schools mostly inclusive, up from 50 per cent in a similar report from 2010. The proportion of schools with few inclusive practices dropped 19 percentage points in the recent survey.

But CCS Disability Action warned that the two reports were not directly comparable because the 2010 report focussed solely on students with high needs while the latest report covered all students with special education needs.

Still seems to be good progress, and definitely going in the right direction.