IDEA (Individuals w/ Disabilities Education Act) A bill that seeks to

provide free education for children with “special educational needs” has

been filed at the Senate.

Senate Bill (SB) 1298 or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

(IDEA) of 2016 aims to implement “zero-reject policy” in public schools

as the bill mandates all public schools in the country to have their own

SPED (Special Education) center and program.

The bill filed by Sen. Joel Villanueva also seeks to provide these public

schools additional resources for special education including the

establishment of SPED centers, hiring of SPED teachers and other SPED

services.

To date, there are 34,000 public schools in the Philippines but only 600 of

them have SPED centers and SPED programs.

A study conducted by the World Health Organization says 15 percent of

the population in a community have special needs but only 2 percent are

being given government support.

Under SB 1298, parental consent must first be given before the conduct of

initial evaluation on a child with special educational needs and the use of

an “Individual Education Program” or IEP, a unique curriculum designed

for a specific disability.

Autism, intellectual disability, developmental delay, orthopedic

impairments, deafness and blindness are among the disabilities covered

by the measure.

The proposed bill aims to strengthen “mainstreaming” in schools that

incorporate children with special needs in regular classrooms.

This can be done through a skills upgrade of teachers, increase of SPED

facilities and improvement of SPED programs, according to Villaneuva.

He, however, clarified that it would still be the parents’ call to subject their

children to the program.