Portugal’s special education system is on the brink - 500 vulnerable children may lose their schools after nearly 20 years of frozen funding

There is a deeply concerning situation unfolding in Portugal involving the country’s special education system.  I am sharing urgent and verified information about the imminent collapse of special education provision in Portugal

Five specialised schools, operating under State cooperation contracts, currently serve around 500 children with some of the most severe and complex needs in Portugal, children who require continuous supervision, multidisciplinary teams, structured environments and adapted facilities that mainstream public schools cannot provide.

For nearly two decades, the funding model for these schools remained essentially unchanged. Between 2008 and 2022, no adjustments were made to reflect rising operational costs, increased staff requirements, or the real needs of the children they support. In 2022, after one school faced imminent closure, the Government approved a small emergency update but clearly stated that a full revision of the funding model would follow the next year. That revision never materialised. According to the schools, the accumulation of financial pressure from almost 20 years of static funding has pushed them to the edge of insolvency.

For the past 18 months, the institutions have repeatedly submitted formal requests for clarification and urgent meetings with the Ministry of Education. They have sent financial reports, cost-per-student studies and written warnings that they may no longer be able to operate. According to these schools, none of those requests have received a response from the Minister of Education or the Secretaries of State. They report total silence, with no clarification, no meeting, and no plan communicated for the future.

Public concern intensified after an announcement in October 2025 in which the Minister of Education publicly referenced a €2.9 million reinforcement for special education. The announcement was reported in national media as if it were additional funding for these specialised schools. However, DGEstE, the State agency responsible for these contracts, later clarified directly to the institutions that this reinforcement was not directed to the contracted special education schools. Instead, it was a replenishment of DGEstE’s general budget for this student placements across various types of institutions, including public private schools, NGOs and cooperatives. The schools state that they did not receive any additional funding and that the number of authorised students also did not change. This discrepancy between what was publicly announced and what was actually implemented has caused widespread confusion and anxiety among families.

The consequences of inaction could be severe. These children require specialised environments that do not exist elsewhere in the public system. Families report living with profound uncertainty and fear, saying they have no idea where their children would go if the schools were forced to close. Some parents have had to leave their jobs because their children were unable to cope in mainstream schools. Now, they fear losing the only safe, stable and appropriate environment available to them, with no publicly identified alternative.

If these five specialised schools become unable to continue operating, where will these children go?

Submitted November 26, 2025 at 06:16PM by Worried_Bike8782 https://ift.tt/Xz4yKHn