Bildning för alla! - DiVA

On a general level there seems to be another division within the comprehensive
schools system between municipal schools and independent schools as
regards amount of pupils in need of special support. The amount of students receiving
special support in municipality schools varies between 15.4 % (Nilholm et
al., 2007) and 17.0-17.5 % (Giota & Emanuelsson, 2011) in different surveys. Corresponding
amount for independent schools varies 11.8 % (Göransson et al., submitted)
and 13.0-15.3 % (Giota & Emanuelsson, 2011).
In all the three studies the amount of students in need of special support is
slightly higher in municipality schools as well as in independent schools. It therefore
also appears that some students are excluded from the special support they
have a right to. Studies also show that there are big variations regarding the amount
of pupils receiving as well as being in need of special support both between municipalities
(Nilholm et al., 2007; Persson, 1998; Skolverket, 2003) and between schools
run by the municipalities as well as between independent schools (Giota & Emanuelsson,
2011; Göransson et al., submitted).
Regarding forms of provision of special support the Education Act (SFS
2010:800) states that special support should in the first instance be given within the
class or group to which the pupil belongs (Chap. 3, § 7). If there are special reasons
support may be provided in a special group (Chap. 3, § 11).
Comparisons between municipality schools and independent schools concerning
the organization of special support must be made with caution as there
are differences between data and analysis of data between the surveys. Both the
study by Nilholm et al. (2007) and by Giota and Emanuelsson (2011) show that the
most common solutions in both municipality schools and independents schools
are that the pupil is part of the ordinary class but gets support from special education
teacher either in the classroom or in a smaller group but less than 50 %
of the time. Regarding organizational solutions in independent schools, reported
results differ between the survey by Giota and Emanuelsson and the total population
survey made by Göransson et al. Result from the survey by Göransson et al.
(submitted) show that there is no form of special support that could be said to be
typical or characteristic for independent schools. Most forms of support are reported
common or very common in around 50-60 % of the schools. Results also show
that 24.2 % of the independent schools state that they have no special pedagogues
or special teachers working with special support. In the survey by Giota and Emanuelsson
(2011) results show that the most common forms of support in independent
schools were the same as in municipal schools.
There are however some trends that indicate that more segregated solutions are
favored in independent schools. When asked what solutions were considered desirable,
20 % of the independent schools (Göransson et al., submitted) as compared
to 10 % within municipalities’ school organizations (Nilholm et al., 2007) stated
that special groups where pupils spend more than 50 % of their time was a desirable
solution. The survey by Giota and Emanuelsson (2011) show that in schools
that stated that they had more than 20 % of pupils in need of special support it was
a more common solution that pupils were placed in special groups in independent
schools than in municipal schools.
168 • BilDning fÖr AllA!