Italian policies on inclusive education began in the 1970ies with Laws that granted all children the right to be educated in common classes, abolishing special schools. All students have the right and the duty to attend mainstream school from the age of 6 to the age of 16 (TreeLLLe, Caritas and Fondazione Agnelli, 2011). For the Italian legislation, some learners with so-called Special Educational Needs (SEN) are entitled of some specific measures. They are divided in three categories: learners with disabilities, with learning disabilities and with other special educational needs. Only the first one determines the right to have extra personnel resources, like a support teacher or, in cases of severe needs, extra assistance hours for support in communication, socialisation, and autonomy. The other learners with SEN, with or without an official decision, have in any case the right to receive an Individualised Educational Plan (IEP) and, in some cases, additional support, for example “learners at risk of exclusion, such as Roma children” (European Agency, 2016, 26). In general, in most of the cases resources allocation in Italy is based on an input model of funding, where the individual right for an Individualised Educational Plan and for extra resources is closely connected to a medical diagnosis and its severity determines the amount of available resources. The official decision is stated in a document, defined by a multi-disciplinary team (family, school, and external members), that describes the support for pupils. It is used as basis for planning and it is subject to a review process (European Agency, 2016; Ianes and Augello, 2019). This model produces incentive to the “strategic behaviour” of formulating needs (Pijl, 2014) and it is linked to increasing costs, where the lack of information, clarity of data and costs-benefits ratio are highlighted by the Italian Court of Auditors (2018). Furthermore, this system requires learners with SEN to be labelled as “special” and, in the case of pupils with disabilities, this stigmatization is further emphasized by the presence of support teachers that are often perceived as “non-proper teachers” and as special resources for special children, instead (Ianes, Demo and Dell’Anna, 2020). On this background, a rethinking of resources allocation, independent from individual medical diagnosis, would be important for the inclusive development of the Italian school system.

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