Eligibility for Special Education Services: Six Years of the ICF-CY Implementation

Abstract

The debate around students? eligibility for special education services remains actual due to its preponderance for determining the resources allocation and services distribution (Burke & Ruedel, 2008; Hollenweger, 2008). This is also the case of Portugal that in 2008 enacted a special education law, which prescribed a new approach for defining the target group for special education services based on the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, version for children and youth, ICF-CY (2007), as a common language and framework to guide the assessment and eligibility determination processes. Special education services were defined for students with: "significant limitations in terms of activity and participation in one or more areas of life, due to structural and functional permanent changes resulting in continued difficulties in communication, learning, mobility, autonomy, interpersonal relationships and social participation" (Paragraph 1 of Article 1st, Chapter I). In line with this definition, DL 3/2008 introduced the principle that documentation of functioning profiles of students ? reflecting the ICF terminology and framework ? should base eligibility determination.