The school and disabled children

Key words: Disabled children, School, Rehabilitation, Special education teachers

The article is a review on the relationship between disabled children and the school, from nursery school to the secondary one, a subject that is little dealt with by paediatric journals. The inclusion of disabled children in regular classes occurred in Italy more than thirty years ago made the country the first one in Europe that eliminated the so-called “special classes” attended only by disabled children. However, today this record does not correspond to a proper inclusion of disabled children both because the per capita expenditure for these children is remarkably lower than the one in most European countries and because disability culture is not sufficiently spread. For this reason many international organisations periodically demand Italy improve caregiving and rehabilitation of children with disabilities. Finally, the article underlines the role that paediatricians, especially the family ones, should play in the general caregiving of disabled children, in particular collaborating with schools, general teachers and special education teachers because they know the children and their families well.