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4. SCHOOL AND CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
What are the school choices for a child with intellectual disability? According to the current legislation of the Czech Republic, all children have the right to education. This means that even children with the most profound disabilities shall have access to appropriate educational activities. Prior to 1989 children with intellectual disabilities were either educated in segregated special schools or were proclaimed as ”uneducable” and not educated at all. This situation has changed in the last decades. Currently, children with ID may go to a school that best suits their needs. Inclusion into mainstream school is a relatively new possibility for children with ID. In the school year 1993/94 Ministry of education allowed for the first time in the Czech Republic the possibility of individual integration of pupils with ID into mainstream schools. Since that time several hundred children with ID started school together with their classmates in regular classrooms. The majority, however, still visits either special classes or special schools. There are two types of special schools for children with ID. The first is called Practical Elementary School (designed for children with mild intellectual disabilities) and the second Special Elementary School (designed for children with more profound intellectual disabilities). Children with the most severe condition can be educated individually, that means by a teacher visiting the child at home or in residential institution.
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