Special education schools and special education classrooms in mainstream schools: an analysis of public and private education options in Spain in the 21 ^st century

Spanish education regulations stipulate that students with special educational needs (SEN) should preferably be educated in mainstream schools. However, in practice, different types of schooling arrangements considered segregative still coexist, such as special education schools (SES) or special education classrooms in mainstream schools (SECMS). This study aims to analyse the statistical evolution of the number of SES and SECMS classrooms over the past two decades, paying attention to the public or private nature of these educational resources and their distribution across the country. To this end, statistics provided by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports are analysed, covering the period from 2001/2002 to 2023/2024. The results show that, despite significant differences between autonomous regions, the number of SESs has remained stable, while the number of SECMSs has increased by more than 500%. These results highlight the inaction of the education administration in the face of the severe criticism it has received for maintaining such a large network of SESs. Furthermore, the fact that the increase in SECMS has been almost entirely undertaken by the public school system may constitute an additional mechanism of segregation.