Since April 2023 and the announcement by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, of a “Law II on inclusive schools”, the review of the policy for welcoming students with disabilities in schools has been stalled. While this ambition is currently at the draft stage, due in particular to the lack of legislative measures to translate it, the Court of Auditors is adding a new stone to the public debate on this subject, which has become a central issue in schools, in the edition, Monday 16 September, of a report assessing the educational inclusion policy since the 2005 law on equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities.
This work results in a generally reserved evaluation, where the obstacles are numerous. If success is “undeniable” in the plan quantitative – the number of children with disabilities attending school has tripled since 2006 to reach 436,085 in 2022 – the magistrates of rue Cambon believe, on the other hand, that the inclusion policy does not allow “meeting the needs of all students effectively and equitably”. Furthermore, they can only give one answer. “reserved” to the questions of whether it allows “Academic success and social and professional integration of students with disabilities”and if the French educational inclusion system can be considered as “efficient and effective”.
The report notes that the principle of inclusion has undoubtedly “changed the organization of the French school system (…) »but the implementation of this public policy continues ” fragile “. “To date, many students with disabilities live discontinuous paths, which are a source of feelings of discomfort and uncertainty about their future”the judges conclude.
Very heterogeneous decisions
The main weakness identified by the Cambon Street institution is the coexistence of the educational sector and the medical-social sector. “whose coordination and interactions are not satisfactory”. The judges thus call for decompartmentalizing the sectors in order to build “a kind of “continuum” of responses to needs”The report also highlights the lack of support and training for professionals in schools, as well as the lack of specialised teachers.
HE “transformations [induites par l’inclusion] They are heterogeneous depending on the territory and, in many cases, incomplete or unfinished.specifies the text. The consequences are felt in the coverage of the needs of children with disabilities. The Court considers in particular that “the implementation of the requirements of departmental centers for people with disabilities [MDPH] is, from a quantitative point of view, insufficient”. Thus, it notes failures “in terms of educational facilities, the layout of buildings, the organisation of transport or the care of students during lunch breaks”.
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