Parental satisfaction with disabled children’s school inclusion in Italy

Abstract

The principal aim of the present study is to examine the level of parental satisfaction with inclusive education for their children with disability attending Italian schools of any grade level. The survey involved 285 parents of pupils randomly selected from the population of students with disability certificates. On average, parents expressed a high level of satisfaction. Four principal components of parental satisfaction were extracted from the item scores of the questionnaire: inclusive educational practices; environment and special equipment; classmates’ and families’ acceptance; integration between education and rehabilitation activities. Various correlations were found between these aspects and both child-related and context-related variables. In particular, children’s emotional regulation abilities evaluated by teachers are involved in various dimensions of the parents’ satisfaction. On the other hand, satisfaction with the integration between the educational and rehabilitation activities showed a significant negative correlation with the fathers’ and mothers’ educational level. Lastly, parental satisfaction towards classmates’ and families’ acceptance appears to be the most critical aspect and tends to decrease in relation to school level, while it is positively linked with the number of hours the support teacher spends in class. Taken together, these results stimulate useful considerations to promote better practices in inclusive education.

Keywords:

• School inclusion
• parental satisfaction
• Italian schools

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the schools, the teachers, the parents, and the students who participated to the research.