He told the Special Educational Needs conference in Edinburgh last week, 'The Executive's commitment to mainstreaming is part of our wider commitment to social inclusion and a quality educational experience for all.'
He said that the Executive had provided 12m over two years to help local authorities include special needs children in mainstream schools, which was being used to improve physical access to buildings and facilities, provide specialist equipment, recruit additional staffing and use new technology.
However, a recent report in Nursery World's sister paper the TES Scotland suggested that the resources supplied by the Scottish Executive do not meet the true cost of providing for special needs children - and local authorities are having to make difficult decisions in order to make up the shortfall. They are collectively spending around 35m more than the Executive's allocation.
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