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While national policies generally support the development of inclusive learning environments, schools can struggle to implement these policies in practice. This longitudinal study offers a unique opportunity to examine at ground level the strengths and limitations of school attempts to implement inclusive practices in relation to children and young people who have special educational needs. This chapter will address the following: government and school policies addressing provision for children and young people with special educational needs; school leaders and implementing policies in practice; types of support provision developed to support those who have literacy difficulties.

The focus of special education around the globe may be to provide specialized instruction to meet unique needs of children to help them achieve their full potential. However, each country around the globe may also have its own unique issues, barriers, legal frames, policies, and practices, as well as a history of its origin and evolution of policies and practices that govern special education in that country. This chapter describes how special education in Spain originated and evolved to its current state. It includes the following chapter sections: origins of special education in Spain; legislative acts; prevalence and incidence of various recognized disability areas; an overview of Spain’s education system including special needs education; current assessment and intervention practices; teacher education practices; family involvement considerations; and future challenges to special education.

According to the revised School Education Act enacted in April 2007, special needs schools in Japan are to provide education for enrolled students as well as any necessary advice or assistance requested by local kindergartens, elementary, junior high, and other schools so that they may educate students who require special educational support. This means that special needs schools must take on the role of special needs education (SNE) centers in the community. Specific assistance that can enhance SNE at elementary, junior high, or other schools, such as promoting understanding of students with disabilities, providing specialized guidance in the form of educational content and methods, and establishing a school support system, may be obtained from special needs schools. In elementary, junior high, and other schools, the number of faculty members and state of facilities and equipment are not always sufficient, and each school has limited support. Therefore, collaboration with special needs schools and medical and welfare institutions is important. This chapter provides a brief overview of the current SNE system in Japan and introduces the roles of SNE coordinators, current issues facing the system, and future perspectives of collaboration to better serve SNE.

This chapter focusses on contradictions within existing legislation to develop an equitable and effective educational system for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It highlights tensions between the underlying aims of the legislation and the implementation of policies, specifically on admissions and exclusions with reference to the current government proposals for an increase in Alternative Provision (AP). It considers the response of Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) to ensure an acceptable practice of inclusion while raising overall standards of attainment. It also considers the Government Green paper response to increasing pressure from parents for more appropriate levels of support for their children with SEND.

In England and Wales, the Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs now places emphasis on the role of the special educational needs co‐ordinator, or SENCO. Analyses the results of a study of 63 SENCOs, in primary and secondary schools in one urban local education authority in England. Examines status in school, levels of salary and time devoted to the role as well as the extent to which SENCOs managed other personnel, together with their reports on ways in which the use of resources was monitored within their schools. It appears that SENCOs’ status is being recognized in many schools, not just by their salary levels but by the time which they have available to devote to their jobs. Administrative burdens brought by the Code of Practice are a continuing concern. Concludes that most SENCOs continue to view resource monitoring as an accounting exercise rather than one in which pupil involvement can be linked to expenditure on inputs.

The work of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education is mainly targeted towards policy-makers – decision-makers responsible for the development and implementation of policy for inclusive education. However, in order to inform this work in the best ways, the contributions of other stakeholder groups are crucial. One such stakeholder group is the end users of inclusive education – young people with and without special educational needs or disabilities educated in schools and universities across Europe.

This chapter focuses upon the voices of such young people and presents their views on inclusive education in relation to a number of key factors. The chapters draw on the contributions of over 300 young people involved in four parliament ‘hearings’ organised by the European Agency in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.

The chapter starts from the principle that the voices of young people in education must be listened to when other stakeholders are considering policies for special needs and inclusive education. Their views, experiences and opinions need to be respected and fully taken into account in the work of practitioners, researchers and policy-makers.

School Psychologists (SPs) have usually been associated with supporting educators in meeting the needs of students with socio-emotional and learning difficulties and disabilities. This chapter suggests that they can support teacher assistants and other educators within inclusive settings in many other ways too. It highlights that SPs are generally trained in holistic student development and group dynamics, in learning, teaching and assessment processes, and in bringing about individual and social change. The whole chapter is based on the idea that inclusion is a concern for all students and therefore also for all school staff. Teacher assistants in inclusive schools are regarded as part of a commitment of the whole school to adapt its curriculum, the organisation of learning and teaching, and the grouping of students so that each one can be actively engaged in the regular learning and social activities of the school.

Thus SPs can be called to support not only the engagement of an individual student but also to help make the class and school welcoming learning communities for all.

This paper seeks to explore three key aspects of the education of children in care: the composition of that population of children and the extent to which they differ from the general population of children due to difficulties most of them have experienced prior to as well as after entering care; issues relating to the identification of causal relationships and the extent of “underachievement” by children in care; and any evidence that care may provide more positive opportunities than is often supposed.

The paper's approach is an extensive literature review of existing published research into social policy and practice of caring for looked after children.

The significant factors that contribute to better achievement for children in care are: placement stability and support at school but for some children therapeutic help and specialist assessments are necessary to improve outcomes. Different analyses produce different results and the scrutiny of children's trajectories indicates better outcomes than one‐off comparisons with children not in care.

Extensive research has established that children in care achieve less educationally than their peers not in care, but does not explain why. This paper helps to fill this gap.

This chapter qualitatively explored the impact of including parent liaisons (i.e., parents with lived experience caring for a child with complex needs, who support other caregivers in navigating child and family needs) in a case conferencing model for children with complex medical/social needs. Case conferences are used to address fragmented care, shared decision-making, and set patient-centered goals. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinicians and parent liaisons to assess the involvement of parent liaisons in case conferencing. Two main themes included benefits of parent liaison involvement (10 subthemes) and challenges to parent liaison involvement (5 subthemes). Clinicians reported that liaison participation and support of patients reduced stress for clinicians as well as family members. Challenges to liaison involvement included clinical team/parent liaison communication delays, which were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Parent liaison involvement in case conferences is perceived to be beneficial to children with complex needs, their families, and the clinical team. Integration of liaisons ensures the familial perspective is included in clinical goal setting.

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is a trending educational concept in engineering education. The literature suggests that there is a growing variety in CBL implementations, stemming from the flexible and abstract definition of CBL that is shaped by teachers' perceptions. The chapter discusses how the CBL concept has been developed at Eindhoven University of Technology and describes the development and use of two educational resources aimed to facilitate conceptualization, design, and research of CBL for curriculum designers and teachers. The first resource is a set of CBL design principles for framing the variety of CBL and providing teachers with advice about how to develop CBL courses within an overall CBL curriculum. The second resource is a curriculum-mapping instrument called the CBL compass, which aims at mapping CBL initiatives and identifying gaps, overlaps, and misalignments in CBL implementation at a curriculum level. Both CBL design principles and the CBL compass have been developed by combining insights from theory and practical examples of CBL at TU/e into a higher order model of vision, teaching and learning, and support. We discuss the two educational instruments and showcase their application in the Eindhoven Engineering Education (E³) program, and we discuss preliminary findings and insights. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future practice and research.