European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education www.european-agency.org

Who we are The EA is made up of a network of 28 countries (Ministries of Education) It was created after the EU Helios programme, in 1996 It is co-funded by countries and the EU institutions

Agency work Thematic projects (topics decided by the Ministries of Education) Analyses leading to different types of information Special events such as the Hearing of Young People with Special Educational Needs in Portugal (Sept. 2007)

Possible Issues for Consideration SNE DATA COLLECTION Possible Issues for Consideration

Agency Focus We are a platform for information exchange and analysis in the specific field of special needs education Our main work is not quantitative data collection Quantitative data is always collected in association with qualitative data The purpose of our quantitative data collection is to inform policy makers in SNE

Agency Quantitative Data on Special Needs Education This field does not deal with ‘absolutes’. SEN is a ‘construction’ that countries identify and deal with in different ways The Agency uses a ‘bottom-up’ model - member countries decide what, how and when the Agency collects data 2006 data set 2008 exercise (covering more member countries) begins now Handout - 2006 data

Data Collected Developed over time (incorporating countries’ requests and specific suggestions from Eurydice and Eurostat) Use of existing national data All Ministerial data sources Contextual information - notes / clarifications Legal definitions of special needs - covering all types of special education settings (inclusive and segregated) Ey and Eurostat - private public and compulsory age range clarifications Questions, clarifications and required notes we have developed with RBs The notes are VERY important to explain the context and situation in the country

Agreed Questions 1. Number of compulsory school aged pupils (including those with SEN) 2. Number of compulsory school aged pupils who have SEN (in all educational settings) 3. Pupils with SEN in segregated settings 4. Pupils with SEN in inclusive settings 5. Compulsory age phase 6. Clarification of Public - Private sector education 7. Legal Definition of SEN Agreed operational definitions of segregated setting

Source is UNI-C Q2 A clarification of what the figure covers is given Q3 Clarifications re responsible funding Agencies is given Q4 The NB is crucial - this is the case for a lot of countries Q7 The ‘source’ of legislation is an important ‘qualitative’ indicator for developments in SNE towards inclusion - ‘integrated legislation’ is a movement in a lot of countries. Q7 legislation also stresses the ‘interaction’ of in-child and environmental factors in the ‘construction’ of SEN

Data collected by … Ministerial Representatives in the Agency (Representative Board members) All special education experts: Knowledge of the population Knowledge of the country context Understanding of the legal definitions Their role is to provide and then verify the data within their national contexts Handout - contacts sheet

Data used … In printed and electronic publications Within Agency studies and analyses As a key resource on the Agency website (National Overviews of special Needs Education) Co-operatively with other organisations, such as Eurydice (Key Data 2005, Figure C3: Participation - trends in pupils educated separately) Limited print run Data as basis for analysis An element within the National Overviews - heavily used: eg: Reiser article Share the info collaboratively with other European organisations - show Eurydice table

Why this data? The Agency member countries want this form of data because … Countries include different ‘categories’ of learners within SNE provision Country policies may or may not include a ‘definition’ of what is meant by inclusive education and a segregated setting Countries may or may not ‘count’ only those learners who have an official ‘recognition’ - decision, certificate, statement or other legal document - of SEN (around 3% with and 15% plus without) The rationale and clarifications for the focus of data collection is very important.

Clarifications (1) The overall focus is on special needs education (SNE) - attention on is provision rather than solely ‘in learner’ factors Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a broader term than disability - it covers more ‘types’ of need Agency work aims to support the movement (in policy and practice) away from medically based models of definition, assessment and provision towards educational and ‘interactionist’ approaches A pupil’s special need(s) is a product of the interaction of their abilities and their environment Countries do not agree on what SEN is - the definitions are contextual and can include various parameters: Categories Identification based on provision needs etc Country situations re policy and identification have evolved and are still evolving - thinking and policies change!!

Clarifications (2) The data uses the country based, legal definitions of SEN - there are no accepted definitions of SEN available to use comparatively across European countries The Agency position: The imposition of ‘external’ definitions has significant methodological difficulties in practice There is only one element of statistical data that is comparable - the percentage of pupils in segregated provision (calculated against the overall school population)