New organisation

Article 5d in Chapter IV of the law, which is totally devoted to inclusive education, is an essential lever in taking into account the unique features and particular educational needs of disabled pupils.

At this start of the 2019 school year, the law allows the support organisation for disabled pupils to be transformed and significant improvement in conditions for recruiting, training and the work of their learning support assistants. These are the two cornerstones of a genuine public inclusive education service.

Roll-out of Pial

The Pial is a new way of supporting disabled pupils.

What is changing : until now, pupils needing an adult to support them in their schooling waited for the person to be recruited. Henceforth, the learning support assistants are recruited within the inclusive unit and assist the pupil as soon as they arrive in class.

The three Pial objectives are :

• human support focusing on the needs of each disabled pupil in order to develop their autonomy and allow them to acquire the expected knowledge and skills
• greater responsiveness in allocating learning support assistants
• professionalisation of learning support assistants and improvement in their working conditions.

More than three thousand local inclusive support units will be rolled out for the school year 2019-2020. They will be distributed uniformly throughout the territory in both primary and secondary education.

For this purpose, 4,500 extra learning support assistants are recruited as full time equivalent. In addition, 29,000 subsidised contracts (CUI-AVS) are being converted into 16,571 AESH full time equivalent.

In total, the increase in means for AESH full time equivalent will be 7.2 %.

Improved job conditions

The learning support assistant is henceforth a full member of the educational team and teams monitoring the schooling of disabled pupils.

They play a major role in welcoming families. They thus attend the welcome interview between the family and the educational team.

AESH jobs are consolidated. With effect from the start of the 2019 school year, they are recruited under three-year fixed contracts. These can be renewed once before a permanent contract is signed if they are continuing with their activity.

The law henceforth allows the national education sector and local authorities to enter into agreements with a view to common AESH recruitment. This standardisation of the "second employer" principle will allow any learning support assistants who so wish to increase their average working hours and provide better continuity pupil support between school and out-of-school hours.

Reference ASEH are appointed in each department to support those starting out.

Their job adaptation training is guaranteed by the law For a School of Trust. They could benefit from this in the first year of practice and will thus be able to access training actions included in the academic training plans.

A departmental "inclusive school" service created in each department

The inclusive education service has a variety of missions :

• educational, with the implementation, monitoring and assessment of the schooling of special needs pupils, including disabled pupils
• administrative, with the implementation of support for disabled pupils
• welcoming families, with the creation of a cell to welcome, listen to and respond to parents and guardians of disabled pupils.

Support the families better

Since June 2019, families have been assisted by a listening unit in all the departments. This unit will be open whenever necessary.

Its purpose is to advise families on the existing facilities and to respond to them on their child's case.

All families enjoy a first-line response within 24 hours of the call.

Support the teachers better

From the start of the 2019 school year, the Inclusive School Heading platform offers teachers educational resources that can be used immediately in the classroom, to support them in the schooling of all pupils and more especially pupils with special educational needs.

This platform also puts teachers in contact with experienced peers who may support them in introducing educational adaptations and arrangements, mainly of pupils with Autistic Spectrum Sisorders (ASD).

Increased number of Ulis (unités localisées pour l'inclusion scolaire - localised educational inclusion units)

At the start of this 2019 school year, two hundred Ulis have been created, including one hundred for secondary education.
By 2002, creation of 250 Ulis in upper secondary school.

Changes in numbers of disabled pupils in ordinary primary and secondary schools

As at 1 June 2019, 201,367 pupils had a prescription from the MDPH (Maisons Départementales des Personnes Handicapees - Departmental Centres for Disabled Persons) for one-to-one or collective support, i.e. an increase of 23,500 prescriptions in one year.