ocational schools and usually also Realschulen are directly answerable to the intermediate regional authorities or the top level of the school supervisory authorities (Ministries of Education and Cultural Affairs), while the much more numerous primary schools, Hauptschulen , certain special schools and, in some Länder, also the Realschulen are the concern of the authorities at the lower level. ("The Education System of the Federal Republic of Germany, KMK, 1995)
The development and organisation of special education in the Länder was harmonised by several decisions adopted by the KMK and especially by the "Recommendations on the Organisation of Special education" (Empfehlung zur Ordnung des Sonderschulwesens; Decision of March 1972) and recommendations for all types of special schools, Sonderschulen. The current situation is documented in the "Recommendation on Special Education in the Schools of the Federal Republic of Germany" (Empfehlungen zur sonderpädagogischen Förderung in den Schulen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Decision of 6. May 1994): "...The education of disabled young people is in principal more and more a co-operative task of all schools. The special education should be understood as a necessary addition and key-element of providing general education." (KMK , 1994, Page 1)
Key-elements of this process are:
- possibilities for special educational support in special schools and in mainstream schools
- awareness raising in dealing with disabled people
- the development of early intervention services
- the development of educational services in Kindergarten and mainstream schools and development of
- possibilities for support, especially in primary schools
- the use of newly developed technical aids
- correction/improvement of assessment and diagnosis
- more sensitivity to the neighbourhood area of the child when finding a school
- more attention to the place of learning and the forms of special education (prevention, integration, special schools, co-operation)
The aim of these recommendations is to create equal opportunities for people with a disability by developing a better standard of special educational support in special schools as well as in mainstream schools.
Within all these changes, it is necessary to take account of:
- the necessary quality and the guarantee of extent of special educationalprovision,
- flexibility of support in a system of combined and adapted aids,
- equal opportunities for SEN pupils independent of the local and form of support
- individual support/development of all pupils in integration settings (disabledand non-disabled), the co-operation of all persons and institutions involved in this process. (KMK, 1994, p.3/4).
In the following years up to 1999, the KMK enacted recommendations for the "emphasis of individual education support" Förderschwerpunkte with respect to learning, speech, emotional and social development, intellectual development, physical development, hearing, vision, autism and long term illness. Each of these Förderschwerpunkte provides information about the educational starting point, the phenomenon of individual special needs and its diagnosis, the provision of SNE and possible placements. The user gets an indication of co-operation and collaboration as well as access to the qualification of the staff.
These recommendations are available (in German) from http://www.KMK.org
These recommendations are the basic for developments and changes in the different Länder and have influence upon the integration policy, the laws, the curricula, the change of paradigm and the definition of SEN.
In 1994, the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) was changed and enlarged for one new article: Art. 3, Abs. 3, Satz 2 "Nobody must have disadvantages due to his/her handicap." (Niemand darf wegen seiner Behinderung benachteiligt werden).
In the last 20 years the development of integration policy has changed towards better educational support of pupils with a disability- towards "integration".
There was an agreement that the installation of a general compulsory school attendance age is n