Indicator 3(A): Do people with mental disabilities get access to mainstream education? Is it inclusive and responsive to their individual needs?

Conclusion:
No. The majority of people with mental disabilities continued to be educated in segregated schools, and the Czech government fails to provide reasonable accommodations to children with mental disabilities to access mainstream education.

Explanation:

Under the Czech Education Act every person has the right to access education on an equal basis with others and the needs of each child have to be taken into account.^[46] However, Czech law does not require public education to be inclusive, instead being based on a model called ‘individual integration’. This does not necessarily mean integrating children with disabilities into mainstream educational provision, but can refer to ‘integrating’ them into special classes or schools for children with a variety of disabilities.^[47]

NGOs submitted a report to the CRPD Committee providing information on the compliance of the Czech Republic with the CRPD. They found that children with disabilities continue to be educated in segregated settings, outside mainstream education.^[48] The same concerns were expressed more recently by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which adopted Concluding Observation on the Czech Republic in June 2014.^[49] The Committee was concerned that children with disabilities still receive education in separate institutions, despite the implementation of the 2010–2014 Action Plan for Creating Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.^[50]

Reasonable accommodations (see Glossary) are not provided to children with mental disabilities to access mainstream educational settings.^[51] Half of the total number of children with special education needs have been ‘individually integrated’ into mainstream education.^[52] Despite this, inclusion is not embedded in the Czech education system, or in the teaching and learning methods used by teachers.^[53] Schools can choose to integrate children with disabilities, but at most this relies on their discretion and they can refuse integration if adequate support cannot be provided or where they argue that the capacity of the school is full.^[54]

Czech law does not guarantee a right of appeal for parents or children with disabilities who have been denied access to mainstream education or supports.^[55] Mainstream schools do not have sufficient funding to provide supports to children with disabilities with the aim of achieving inclusion.^[56] In many cases, families have to bear the burden of providing personal assistance according to the needs of the child.^[57]