The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (United Nations, 1989) defends in article 12 the right to children's participation, As well as their right to be able to form an opinion and be able to express it on all matters that concern them, including judicial and administrative processes, according to their age and maturity. In the field of attention to diversity, great progress has been made across Europe towards higher levels of inclusión, and the participation of students has been one of its fundamental principles. However, although some research has been carried out on the right to participation of students in different contexts the exercise of the rights of these children and young people requires more research, particularly among the most vulnerable groups. In this sense one of the most recent lines of research is the one led by Professor Sheila Riddell (2018), at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), with the project entitled: “Autonomy, Rights and Children with Special Needs: A New Paradigm?”.  Based on the collaboration of our research group with the Centre for Research in Education, Inclusion and Diversity, which is currently led by Riddell, a line of work has emerged focusing on the realization of an adaptation of the British study to the context of Castilla y León, Spain (Casado-Muñoz  & Lezcano-Barbero, 2018).

The Spanish research on childhood participation has begun in the last decade to highlight the concept of "The Voice of Children" (CV) (Márquez & Sandoval, 2016). These studies emphasize the CV as a matter of democratic life, where it is required the participation of all students (Susinos, 2012), even in such matters as conflict resolution or the educational research.

Research on the participation of the most vulnerable children and young people is scarcer, given that the "Discourse on the rights of the Child and the citizenry has not taken into account the structural and social inequalities that legitimize the exclusion of the" non-normal "from That social participation and categorization "(Ramiro, 2016). Calvo, Rodríguez-Hoyos and García (2012) have tried to promote the participation of young people who had a disadvantaged school situation and have studied in "Second chance" programs, linking with their experience to the educational project of their school.

The general objective of our research is to identify opportunities and barriers for participation in educational and social environments of children and youth with special needs in Castilla y León (Spain). However, in this article we will focus on one of the specific objectives of our research project. The specific objective is to review the state of the art in terms of legislation and educational research in the field of child and youth participation.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Junta of Castilla y León under [grant number BU074G18] through the Call for Subventions allocated to the support of Research Groups of the Public Universities of Castilla y León.

The research design of the global project responds to a mixed method, specifically to the sequential exploratory design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007), which begins with a qualitative approach to explore the desired phenomenon (review of literature; applying interviews to different groups: managers, students, families ...), and develops a quantitative phase afterwards. This mixed approach allows us to combine a high level of national / regional policy research and practice of educational authorities with an in-depth exploration of experiences of children and young people in different social and cultural contexts. As previously mentioned, in this article we focused on the first phase of the project: the review of the literature. In this sense, the research synthesis used to review the literature about legislation and research about youth participation is called critical review (Pare, Trudel, Jaana & Kitsiou, 2015). The aim of critical reviews is to analyze the extant literatura on a broad topic in order to reveal weaknesess, contradictions or inconsistences. The strength of a critical review lies in its ability to highlight problems, discrepancies or areas in which the existing knowledge about a topic is untrustworthy (Pare et al., 2015).

The current Spanish regulation (State and regional) tries to adapt to international regulations. It also tries to seek support in research that indicates that participation has to start from the motivations, needs and interests of the children and not of pre-designed programs that forget their voices (Redondo-Sama et al., 2014). However, practical application still needs to be improved. Similarly, regional policies tend to progress, but as indicated by the Unicef reports Castilla and León (2017), it is necessary to ensure that the cultural and leisure offer dedicated to children varied and affordable. It is necessary too to count with the participation of children themselves, paying special attention to the collective with disabilities; and to consolidate the actions of dissemination and knowledge of the rights of the child; taking into account the views of children by establishing child-representation body; and promoting regular participatory processes regarding decisions that affect children in local institutions, schools and health centers. Particularly in the educational centers, School Councils, (as institution of child participation in school), are still not sufficient. These do not ensure the participation of boys and girls in primary education and special education. Likewise, special attention must be given to the protection and specific attention to children and adolescents with disabilities and their needs as recommended by many social entities (Plataforma Infancia España, 2017, p. 13): That attention should be "A constant in all actions, measures and policies to be adopted: the principle of non-discrimination for disability must be transversal, so attitudes can be changed". Overall, new research is needed in this field, based, we insist, in a new paradigm, particularly the number 12 of the UNCCR (Casado-Muñoz, Lezcano-Barbero, & Baños, in press). This new paradigm should not be limited by particular ideological or methodological wills.

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