President Duterte has signed into law a measure that would ensure inclusive education for learners with disabilities.

Republic Act No. 11650 dated March 11, and was released to media Tuesday, March 15, seeks to institute a policy of inclusion and services for learners with disabilities in support of intrusive education, and establish inclusive learning resource centers in all schools across the country.

"It is the policy of the state to protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all," the law read.

"It shall recognize, protect, and promote the rights of all learners with disabilities, including those belonging to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin, to education based on equal opportunity, make such education compulsory and accessible to them by ensuring that no learner with disability is deprived of the right of access to an inclusive, equitable, and quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for them," it added.

Under the new law, the Department of Education (DepEd) is mandated to establish at least one Inclusive Learning Resource Centers of Learners with Disabilities (ILRC) in all cities and municipalities with the help of local government units (LGUs).

The law also converts existing special education (SPED) Centers into ILRC, prioritizing areas with the most number of learners with disabilities.

The LGUs, the law stated, may establish, satellite ILRCs in schools, whose operations and maintenance will be included in the School Improvement Plan, a roadmap that lays down the school’s specific interventions and solutions to corresponding identified priority improvement areas and aims to improve the three key result areas in basic education, namely access, quality, and governance.

It also allows private early or basic education schools to establish additional facilities needed for the education of learners with disabilities in coordination with ILRCs within their cities and municipalities.

Meanwhile, ILRCs are tasked to implement the Child Find System to ensure that all learners with disabilities who are not receiving early and basic education services are identified, located, and evaluated, and facilitate their inclusion into the general education system.

To ensure inclusive education in ILRCs, the measure also mandated DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education to develop scholarship programs for in-service teachers who will take courses or the required master’s degree units on special needs education, inclusive education, or other related courses.

The law stated that each ILRC must have a multi-disciplinary team composed of professionals and experts that will help prepare the curriculum for all students with disabilities based on their assessments and diagnoses.

These include educational psychologists, guidance counselors, developmental pediatricians, physical therapists, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, speech language pathologist, reading specialist, specialists for Braille and other augmentative and alternative modes of communication, sign langauge specialists and interpreters, sign communication or visual specialists, and special needs teachers.

A 2019 UNICEF report showed that an estimated 60 percent of Filipino children with disabilities were out of school according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Listahanan.

Moreover, the inability to access education services and learning resources was one of the major concerns cited in the 2020 survey of the Council for the Welfare of Children Sub-Committee on Children with Disabilities.