Portugal Rewrote Its Inclusive-Education Rulebook for January 2027, and Schools Say the Staff to Run It Are Not There

Portugal has rewritten the law that governs how schools support children with additional needs. The Council of Ministers approved a revision of the Regime Jurídico da Educação Inclusiva on 30 July, replacing the framework in force since 2018, and it takes effect in January 2027. As the 2026/2027 year opens, school directors are making a different point: the structures are new, the people to staff them are not there.

The revision was built on 492 contributions from the public consultation and on an external evaluation carried out by ISCTE in 2025. Its diagnosis is that the 2018 regime was sound in principle and unworkable in practice, buried in paperwork and unclear about who was responsible for what.

What actually changes

Four things. A Sistema Nacional de Apoio à Inclusão (National Inclusion Support System, SNAI) is created to provide a continuous response through to the end of compulsory schooling, coordinated between sectors through regional sub-commissions and Equipas Locais de Apoio à Inclusão (Local Inclusion Support Teams, ELAI). A Plano de Desenvolvimento Integral (Integral Development Plan, PDI) replaces the scattered documents that followed a pupil, becoming a single individual file for planning, monitoring and evaluation. A Gestor de Apoio à Inclusão is named for each child, so there is one identifiable person coordinating a complex case. And differentiated curricular pathways are explicitly recognised for high-ability pupils, which the 2018 text handled poorly.

The same Council of Ministers meeting approved a new teacher-placement model for 2027/2028, splitting recruitment into competitions for permanent posts and continuous daily hiring for temporary gaps, with the aim of cutting the time pupils spend without a teacher.

The staffing gap the reform inherits

Directors have been consistent about what is missing: special-education teachers, specialised technicians, operational assistants and, in many cases, the rooms and materials to work in. Among technicians the scarcest are speech therapists, occupational therapists and psychologists.

The government's answer arrived in April, when the Education Ministry opened procedures to put 1,406 specialised technicians onto permanent school staff: 758 psychologists and 648 others, including speech therapists, social educators and IT technicians. The stated goal is at least one psychologist on the establishment of every school grouping. The Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses responded that 758 posts would not absorb the roughly 900 psychologists already working in schools on contracts, let alone expand provision. Portugal placed 20,404 teachers for September, with Lisbon, Setúbal and the Algarve still the hardest districts to fill.

What this means for parents in Portugal

• Nothing changes this school year. The 2018 regime and your child's existing measures stay in force until January 2027, and complementary legislation is still to be published.
• You will get one named contact. The Gestor de Apoio à Inclusão is designed to end the situation where no single person owns a case. Ask the school who it is once the regime starts.
• Keep the paperwork you have. The PDI consolidates existing documents. Reports, assessments and previous measures will be the raw material for it.
• High-ability children are now in scope. If your child has been told the school has no mechanism for acceleration or enrichment, the new text creates one.
• Availability will vary by grouping. A named manager and a local team do not conjure a speech therapist. Ask at enrolment which technicians the agrupamento actually employs.

The gap between a reform on paper and a reform in a classroom is measured in hires. Portugal has given itself until January 2027 to close it, in a labour market where the therapists it needs are also being recruited by the health service, private clinics and, increasingly, other countries.