School inclusion: accessibility, quality of the supply and characteristics of the students with learning support teacher. S.Y. 2017-2018

Istat released the results of the survey on students with learning support teachers, providing a broad information framework, in terms of resources for inclusion, on all schools in the Italian territory for the 2017-2018 school year.

The goal of the survey was to examine the resources and tools that have been adopted by single school to facilitate the integration of students with learning support teachers. The survey response rate was 81%, 46.011 schools have filled the questionnaire.

During SY 2017-2018, almost 270 thousand disabled students were enrolled in the education system: 3.1% of the total number of students.

The scholastic environment remained fairly inaccessible and the number of schools equipped to overcome architectural barriers appeared to be too low, only the 32% of schools are accessible for mobility disability and 18% don’t have barriers for auditory and visual disability.

In SY 2017-2018, the MIUR data indicated more than 156 thousand learning-support teachers, while assistants to autonomy and communication are about 48 thousand. The students with learning support teachers who attend primary and secondary schools are over 165 thousand, 3.7% of total students (Miur).
Intellectual disability affected 46% of disabled students, general development disturbance and language specific disorder affected respectively 25% and 20% of students. Many students have more than one health problem (48%).

The students with learning support teachers receive an average of 14 hours per week of learning support. At the local level, a greater number of hours is observed in the schools of the South of Italy: on average 3 hours more than those recorded in schools in the North of the country.

The students with learning support teachers rarely participate in education trips (24% in primary school and 40% in lower secondary school) mainly due to the presence of disability (22% in primary school and 35% in secondary school

For information

Claudia Di Priamo
ph. +39 06 4673.7310
email: dipriamo@istat.it