Senate OKs bill creating equal opportunities for learners with disabilities

The Senate has approved on third and final reading the measure that aims to ensure equal opportunities for students with special needs.

The Senate, voting 23-0 on Monday, May 31, approved Senate Bill No. 1907 or the proposed law Instituting Services for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education Act.

Once passed into law, each city and municipality would be required to put up at least one inclusive learning resource center (ILRC) for learners with special needs. The measure also seeks to convert all existing special education (SPED) centers into ILRCs.

Under the measure, ILRCs will implement the Child Find System (CFS) to make sure that all learners with disabilities who are not receiving basic education services are identified, located, and evaluated to facilitate their inclusion in the general education system.

The bill also calls for the creation of multidisciplinary teams composed of professionals and experts such as special needs teachers, educational psychologists, guidance counselors, psychometricians, developmental pediatricians, physical therapists, and speech and language therapists, among others, that will serve as staff of these ILRCs.

While the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) estimates that more than 5 million Filipino children are living with disabilities, there were only an estimated 439,700 learners with disabilities enrolled in DepEd schools for SY 2019-2020.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said passage of the measure into law would be a declaration “that no learner with disability shall be denied admission and inclusion in any public or private basic education institution.”