The rules say a Pedagogía Terapéutica teacher — a PT, the specialist teacher for special educational needs — should support between 9 and 12 pupils with special educational needs. The reality is different.
The numbers
In Spain, each autonomous region sets its own ratios. Castilla y León reserves 2 places per unit for pupils with special educational needs. Extremadura also 2. Asturias goes up to 5 per group. In the Valencian Community the maximum is 2 per class group in Primary.
In the Basque Country, Decreto 78/2024 repealed the 1998 decree and updated how schools respond to diversity. State-funded private secondary schools receive 1 PT for up to 10 pupils with special educational needs of limited intensity, and from 16 pupils onwards a further 3 PTs are added. But there is no fixed nationwide ratio.
The real problem
A shortage of specialists means many PTs support more pupils than the law allots them. Unions are calling for full PT posts in a single school, rather than shared between several. Because a PT who splits the week between 2 or 3 schools cannot get to know any pupil properly.
Why it matters
When a PT supports 20 pupils instead of 12, the quality of the intervention drops. Adaptations get made in a hurry. Coordination with class teachers shrinks to corridor conversations. And the pupils who need the most support receive less of it than they are entitled to.
Inclusion without resources is not inclusion. It is integration in disguise.
References
Decreto 78/2024, de 18 de junio, por el que se establece la ordenación de la respuesta a la diversidad en Euskadi.
Ley Orgánica 3/2020, de 29 de diciembre (LOMLOE). Articles 71-79.
Resolución de la Viceconsejera de Educación del Gobierno Vasco for the 2024-2025 academic year: allocation of resources for inclusion.
CCOO Enseñanza (2024). Report on ratios and the allocation of PT/AL specialists in state schools.