“Unfortunately, too many children with disabilities will still be deprived of their return to school and their rights to education are violated”, denounces in a press release, Tuesday August 29, Luc Gateau, the president of Unapei, one of the major federations bringing together associations of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

To assess the extent of the problem, Unapei conducted a study with a sample of 2,103 children supported by its local branches, in six regions in France. Result: 23% have “no hours of schooling” per week, 28% between zero and six hours, 22% between six and twelve hours and 27% receive more than twelve hours of instruction per week. Disabled children in school also sometimes find themselves in a class “not adapted” to their needs, regrets Unapei, a week before the start of the school year.

This is the case, for example, of Noah, eight years old, who has autism. After four years of waiting for a place in Ulis class, specializing in the reception of disabled students, the Departmental House for Disabled People (MDPH) directed him to a medical-educational institute (IME). But for lack of space, he will enter in September in CE1 in ordinary environment.

“We are frustrated, because he is young and it is at this age that he can learn,” laments to Agence France-Presse (AFP) his mother, Julie, 41, who lives near Nantes. . “We have done a lot of steps, we are kept waiting and each time it is a disappointment.” For her, children with disabilities are “forgotten by society”.

“Administrative burden”

Caroline Poinas, 39, also regrets “the administrative burden” in trying to obtain a place in the Ulis class for the first time for her eight-year-old son, who has attention disorders. She appealed in May, after being refused. “We are waiting, we still don’t know for the start of the school year, it’s especially stressful for him”, she underlines.

Unapei has collected on a dedicated site 880 testimonials from families affected by various difficulties for the start of the school year. “School for all is a government priority,” Fadila Khattabi, Minister for People with Disabilities, assured AFP. She stresses the need to “focus” “efforts” on “the quality of support”, in particular by strengthening “the presence of medico-social professionals within the walls of the school”.

At the end of April, during the national disability conference, the government also announced a pilot project to deploy around a hundred medico-educational institutes within schools. Sonia Ahéhéhinnou, vice-president of Unapei, fears an “announcement effect”: “We are waiting to see how it will be financed and implemented”. She believes that an observatory should first be set up to assess the needs in order to “properly calibrate the methods of schooling and support”.

A welcome in progress

In recent years, the number of children with disabilities welcomed to school has increased: there will be more than 430,000 at the start of the 2023 school year, or 34% more than in 2017, according to the Ministry for People with Disabilities. The number of people accompanying students with disabilities (AESH) has also increased by 42% since 2017. There will thus be around 136,000 at the start of the school year.

“An AESH is essential for my son, but he needs to fully understand his autistic disorder”, comments Delphine Garreau, 47 years old. She deplores the lack of ties between the accompanying person and the student’s family as well as the lack of specific training.

This workshop technician in aeronautics hopes that her son will be accompanied by the same person as last year for his return to 4th grade in an ordinary environment, after years of choppy schooling.