The research project aims to assess the enforcement of the new “Regulation fostering integration and inclusion of pupils with Special Educational Needs”  approved by the President of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy) in May 2008 (500.000 inhabitants). The project has been promoted and funded by the Provincial Unit for Evaluation in years 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The “Regulation” introduces for the first time in Italy some new important factors that lead to a development of the actual law for the Integration of students with disability towards a more inclusive way of identifying students’ needs and plan effective additional educational resources.

Two of most discussed topics in the Italian discourse about the quality of integration and inclusion are: 1. the inequality of the schools system towards needs of some students that need additional educational resources, but do not receive them because they can’t be identified as “disabled”; 2. the role of the support teacher, seen as the main additional educational resource (Treellle et all., 2010).  These themes represent concrete aspects of the international well known discussion about the Dilemmas of Difference (Norwich, 2008;  Terzi, 2005). The “Regulation” is an example of a local school law that tries to address the dilemma, in order to plan additional educational resources in a more equal way.

The first important factor of innovation within the “Regulation” is that three different brackets of Special Educational Needs (A,B,C) are introduced: A student with “disability certification” , B pupils with Specific Learning Disabilities (LD), C pupils with behavioral and emotional problems or social disadvantages, due to personal and/or social permanent or temporary difficulties. For all of these students different forms of additional educational resources are granted. This overcomes the traditional idea that only disability requires additional educational resources, which the Italian low about the Integration of students with disability was based on.

Another important factor is that the allocation of extra provisions is done by the Provincial School Office, on the basis of an assessment of the didactic needs of the class, drafted directly by teachers and school principal. It is no more based on a medical certification done by the Health System, that still exists but it is no more a compulsory prerequisite for the allocation of resources. Furthermore the plan for additional educational resources is supposed to take into account plenty of resources and not only support teachers.

The study  carried out during school year 2011-12 aims to:

-          carry on monitoring the new regulation enforcement, in accordance with the data collected during year 2010-11. Large importance has been given to the knowledge of the new regulation among teachers and school community and to the ways of cooperating among different key figures, fostering inclusion at school (teachers, families, classmates, school principals, professional of the health system);

-          describe and analyze the methodological choices done by teachers in the way they organize teaching and learning processes for their students on the basis of the new regulation;

-          analyze socialization processes among pupils during and after school time.

Canevaro A., D'Alonzo L., Ianes D., Caldin R. (2011), L'integrazione scolastica nella percezione degli insegnanti, Trento, Erickson; Ianes D., Demo H., Zambotti F. (2010), Gli insegnanti e l’integrazione: atteggiamenti, opinioni e pratiche, Trento, Erickson; ISTAT (2011), L’integrazione degli alunni con disabilità nelle scuole primarie e secondarie di I grado, statali e non statali: 2009-10, January 19th 2011, http://www.istat.it/salastampa/comunicati/non_calendario/20110119_00/testointegrale20110119.pdf ; ISTAT (2012), L’integrazione degli alunni con disabilità nelle scuole primarie e secondarie di I grado, statali e non statali: 2010-11, January 12th 2012, http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/50280 ; Norwich B. (2008), Dilemmas of Difference, Inclusion and Disability, Routledge, London and New York ; Terzi L. (2005), Beyond the Dilemma of Difference: the capability approach on disability and special educational needs, in:
Journal of Philosophy of Education , 39 (3), pp.443-459; Treellle, Caritas and F.G.Agnelli (2010), Gli alunni con disabilità nella scuola italiana. Bilancio e proposte, Erickson, Trento