Israel’s Inclusion Law for Special Needs Students to Continue Despite Ongoing School Challenges
About two weeks before the new school year begins, Israel’s Inclusion Law, aimed at integrating students with special needs into regular classrooms, will continue into 2026 despite significant challenges. Initially introduced with positive intentions, the law has led to widespread difficulties in schools, including increased violence, frustration, academic regression, teacher burnout, and harm to both special needs and regular students. Over the past year, the teachers’ union intermittently shut down more than 60 schools due to violence linked to the law’s consequences.
Eight years after the special education law amendment, education officials acknowledge a large gap between the law’s goals and its implementation, affecting students, parents, and teachers alike. The teachers’ union secretary-general, Yaffa Ben-David, has made the inclusion issue a central demand in upcoming salary negotiations, calling for limits on the number of integrated students per class and restricting parental choice of educational settings. She highlighted cases where up to ten special needs students are placed in one class without adequate support, leading to classroom breakdowns.
Warnings from the teachers’ union and social organizations before the law’s enactment stressed the need for budget increases, teacher training, additional para-medical staff, and smaller class sizes to prevent failure and chaos. Currently, about 382,000 students qualify for special education services, with approximately 227,000 integrated into mainstream schools. School principals report that the current integration model fails, especially for students with severe behavioral or mental health issues who do not receive appropriate support, causing classroom disruptions.
In response, Education Minister Yoav Kisch appointed a public committee led by Amos Shapira to review the system and adopt recommendations including reducing class sizes to 19 and comprehensive teacher training. However, these have not been implemented due to an estimated cost of 14 billion shekels over several years.
Teacher and mother Lior Shaham-Kanin, who has two special needs children and has fought for their inclusion, describes the system’s shortcomings from both perspectives. While she believes in inclusion’s value, she admits that without proper resources and conditions, the current approach is insufficient. She emphasizes that most teachers lack special education training and face overwhelming challenges in large, heterogeneous classrooms.
The Ministry of Education acknowledges the need for deep changes due to the growing number of students with special needs and supports the Shapira committee’s recommendations. Minister Kisch plans to launch a multi-year "New Deal in Education" starting this school year, involving significant investment, legislative changes, and cooperation with the Finance Ministry, local authorities, teachers’ unions, and parents. However, the implementation has been delayed by budgetary constraints linked to ongoing conflict-related expenses.
