Among the savings measures that the majority of the Management wants to introduce in the 2025 budget there is a cut of 2 million for special education. Where to cut, however, is not specified. And there is concern among operators in the sector.
It must be said: compared to the current year, in 2025 the Canton has planned to spend more on special pedagogy. In the report signed yesterday, however, the majority of the Management, made up of Plr, Centro and Lega, asks for limit this increase. The increase should be limited to 2 million compared to the 6.57 million initially expected. In Ticino, special pedagogy is expressed in what were once defined as “special school classes”, in the inclusion of pupils with disabilities in regular classes (with teachers and special operators attached), but also in speech therapy. In the government message on the budget, we read that the increase in spending in the sector is largely attributable to personnel (+6.55 million) and is explained by career growth, an increase in teachers and substitutes. Where exactly to go to recover these 2 million, the majority of the Management does not say. “If in this sector the Commission itself has not found any waste to intervene on, despite the various hearings, it means that these wastes probably don’t exist“, he observes into our microphones Danilo Forini. The great councilor Ps is also director of ProInfirmisan association that supports people with disabilities. Forini does not hide his concern. “It is a cut that will significantly damage the future of these children.”
Special education has been seeing a for years spending growthwith an average annual increase rate of 12.7%. From 16 million in 2015, it went to 41.8 million in 2023. “A further increase of 6.2% is expected for 2025”, we read in the majority report, which “deems it appropriate and justified to slow down this continuous progression uncontrolled spending”. In recent years, however, special educational needs have seen a significant increase in Ticinoeven very recently: in the different modes of special classes, in the year 2023-2024 the students increased by 59 units; this year, according to our information, just under 80. “We are talking about children diagnosed with autism, neurodivergence, dyslexia“, completes Forini. “And the special pedagogy section is required to intervene in these cases.” For the director of ProInfirmis, “not responding to this increase in students means reducing quality. If the measure passes, I imagine that the Decs will have to reduce the number of specialized teachers, increase the number of students per class, reduce the hours of speech therapy, reduce the integration operators (who work in regular classes in which there are students with special needs, ed.), reduce subsidies to institutes such as Otaf, Canisio or Loverciano, which deal with the most difficult cases”.
There were also cuts in the sector with the last estimate. The association Atgabbeswhich follows people with special educational needs and their families, fears a return to the past, with steps backwards on the fulcrum of special education: the school. “My impression is that historical memory is being lost,” he comments Cosimo Mazzottapresident of the association and father of a disabled young woman. “When work began on special education in Ticino in the 1960s, there was nothing. It is no coincidence that work began on schools.”
The world that gravitates around special education is now evaluating what to do. “Several concerned parents and people who today have a job and who in the past needed special education are calling us”, says Danilo Forini. “We are in contact with other industry bodies and are organizing actions for the coming weeks.”
