CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- In line with the Department’s thrust of providing quality and inclusive basic education for all, the Department of Education (DepEd) continues to provide the necessary educational interventions for learners with special needs through its Special Education (SPED) program.
The SPED program of DepEd provides a holistic approach in catering to the needs of learners with various exceptionalities.
This program ensures that learners with exceptionalities will have access to quality education by giving them their individual and unique learning needs.
This initiative caters to learners with visual impairment, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, learning disability, autism spectrum disorder, communication disorder, physical disability, emotional and behavioral disorder, multiple disability with visual impairment, and to those who are orthopedically handicapped, chronically ill, and gifted and talented.
DepEd has recognized a total of 648 SPED Centers and regular schools offering the program—471 which caters to elementary students and 177 are catering to high school students.
The Education Department has recorded around 250,000 enrollees with certain exceptionalities at the elementary level and around 100,000 at the high school level in School Year (SY) 2015-2016.