חוק חינוך מיוחד (תיקון מס' 11), התשע"ח-2018Special Education Law (Amendment No. 11), 2018 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

Amendment No. 11 to the Special Education Law includes several amendments to the existing Law. Among other things, it provides that placement committees shall be replaced by eligibility and characterization committees headed by a Ministry of Education employee who has expertise, experience, and training in special education. It is further provided that the eligibility and characterization committees shall determine students' eligibility for special education services as well as the basket of services to which they are entitled, and after this is determined, the student's parents shall choose, except in certain cases, the type of educational framework in which the student will study, from among the following: a special education institution, a class in a regular educational institution providing special education, or inclusion in a regular educational institution. In addition, at the time the Law was enacted, terms were used that are no longer accepted in legislation today, and they have therefore been replaced with terms accepted today. Additionally, a purposes section has been added to the Law, updated in accordance with legislation concerning equal rights for persons with disabilities. The determination of eligibility and the basket of services to be provided to a student with special needs by the eligibility and characterization committee shall be made according to the student's needs and level of functioning and subject to the inherent characteristics of the educational framework in which he studies. The Law also includes a change in the provisions concerning the procedures of the eligibility and characterization committee, in order to improve its work and increase parental involvement in decision-making, as well as regarding renewed deliberation. It is further provided that in cases where the eligibility and characterization committee believes, based on the opinion of treatment professionals and written information from the educational institution where the student studies, that there is a real concern that placing the student in an educational framework in accordance with the parents' choice will cause real harm to the student's safety or the safety of others, it may decide on his placement in a suitable framework. The integration committees operating in regular educational institutions have also been replaced by multidisciplinary teams whose roles are to determine eligibility for special education services for students with certain disabilities, the composition of the basket of services for students integrated in the institution, and their individual educational program. Various provisions have also been established regarding the procedures of deliberation before these teams and the possibility of appealing to an appeals committee to contest their decision. In order to give the Ministry of Education and the various educational frameworks time for appropriate preparation for the Amendment, it is provided that the provisions of the Law shall be applied gradually beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, in accordance with an order to be established by the Minister of Education, provided that their application shall be completed no later than the 2020-2021 school year, and application may be by region. The Law includes two schedules, including the definition of the disabilities for which a student is entitled to special education services and who is authorized to diagnose them, as well as what the basket of services is to which a student is entitled within a framework of integration in a regular educational institution or in a special education institution. A provision was also established requiring the eligibility and characterization committee to provide the student's parents, before they choose an educational framework, with written information detailing the services the student is entitled to receive in each educational framework.

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Sponsors

Yakov Margi, Karine Elharrar, Ilan Gilon, Yoav Ben Tzur, Merav Ben Ari, Elie Elalouf, Yoseph Yonah, Nachman Shai, Yifat Shasha Biton, Dov Khenin, Mordhay Yogev, Meir Cohen, Yoel Hasson, Yehiel Hilik Bar