Autism and the right to education in the EU: policy mapping and scoping review of Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.
Robin van Kessel, Sebastian Walsh, Amber N V Ruigrok and 12 others
PMID 31867091WHAT IT FOUND
Nordic education policies for autistic children aim to keep them in mainstream schools with support, moving to special settings only when mainstream no longer serves the child.
The paper maps written policy, not therapy outcomes.
Key findings
01After screening 1894 sources, the review included 48 articles, made up of 43 policy documents and 5 scientific sources.
02Swedish policy states that everyone should be included in mainstream schooling and placement in special teaching groups should be used only as a last resort.
03Finnish policy says SEN services should be provided in a mainstream classroom when possible and sets conditions for moving a child partially or completely to special education.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The findings apply only to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland and cannot be generalised to other countries. The paper maps written policy, not how schools or therapists implement it, so the results remain theoretical. For Denmark and Finland, the N-Lex database was unavailable, so manual translation may have missed some terms. The Danish policy repository had limited entries before 1985, so some early policy history is incomplete. Only governmental documents were included, so actions by non-governmental organisations were missed unless adopted into national legislation. The scope was limited to autistic children under 18, not autistic adults in education. The exact content of teacher training courses could not be reviewed.
Declared interests
Funders named: Gillings School of Public Health (US) and Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that inclusive education improves clinical outcomes. It maps written policies, not children's health or therapy results, and the authors state the findings remain theoretical.