Inclusion Policy in Education and Health

Abstract

The article comments some of the main historical aspects of the policy of inclusion in education and health and reflects on the current context of public policies in the country. Reflection on the historical aspects of inclusive education is important to understand the trajectory in time of public policies published in Brazil. Considered as an important international landmark of inclusive public policy, the Salamanca Declaration was elaborated at the World Conference on Special Education, in Spain, in 1994. This document described that all students with special educational needs have the fundamental right to education, referring not only to students who have a difficulty related to conditions, dysfunctions, limitations or disabilities, but to children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. The article also highlights the Federal Constitution of 1988 by guaranteeing education as a fundamental right and the Brazilian Law for Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, published in 2015, known as Statute of Persons with Disabilities. Currently, ensuring access to quality and equitable inclusive education for all is still a major challenge, besides being one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that constitutes the world agenda for 2030. In relation to health, in 2001, there was a relevant contribution to public policy in the area of health. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved a classification system for understanding human functioning and disability: the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The ICF has become a reference for international and national public policy and represents an instrument of intercession between the area of health and special education. The mutuality between these areas can also contribute to a significant improvement in the quality of public policies in the country.