Federal state chairs, National referees as well as the National board of directors met in Bad Sassendorf for the first National Board meeting 2013.

The federal state chairs’ reports demonstrated once again the varying development towards inclusive educational systems within the respective federal states. Impressively it became clear, how great a significance the German Association for Special Education (vds) holds at current. Its participation in important committees on matters of educational policies is universally favoured; the association’s opinion is both demanded for and integrated in decision making processes.

During the meeting the National referees met for exchange. Led by Marianne Schardt and Clemens Hillenbrand the structural modes of the National Symposiums, conducted by the National board, were discussed, and binding agreements were made on the forthcoming symposiums on “Physical and Motor Skills Development” and “Hearing and Vision” in 2014. The National referees also broached the issue on the necessity of installing a symposium on “Vocational education and advanced occupational training”. The National Board will consider the possibility of an introduction as soon as 2014.

The second day started with the opening talk by Dr. Markus Gebhardt on the issue of “Academic integration in Austria – Status quo and exploratory findings”. The Austrian academic structure and the legal development towards a realisation of integration and inclusion since the 1990s have formed the backdrop to differentiated empirical research. Yet the political restriction of aids regarding SNE resources is quite explosive – aids are restricted to a constant 2.8% of pupils and lead to significant constraint in financial, staff, spatial, and material equipment.

Subsequently Dr. Gebhardt introduced detailed results of his own empirical studies in the federal state of Steiermark, where more than 80% of all pupils with special educational needs are educated at General Schools. On one side qualified teachers of varying professions show quite similar, positive attitudes. On the other side the evaluation of the development of school performance – carried out on basic maths skills in both years 5 and 6 – proves to be rather difficult: Not before considering different challenges of tasks a positive development of pupils with special educational needs could be detected; on the contrary, achievements of pupils without special needs stagnated.

During the lively discussion topics of organisation and equipment as well as the differentiated experiences within the various SNE foci stood in the foreground. Further, problems, e.g. in the process of diagnostics and the cooperation of different special services, were discussed.

In the afternoon the National Board took on both forthcoming events, the “Special Needs Education Congress” and the 47^th General National Meeting.

The Special Needs Education Congress, taking place in Weimar April 24^th – April 27^th, is fully booked with a registered 700 participants and 40 speakers. Organisational details were conferred with Thuringia state chair Gisela Langer, who also signed responsible for organising the social programme.

Representatives of the state organisation of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ines Hule and Ada Rösler, presented the current state of preparation for the 47^th General Meeting in Rostock. Invitations for the Minister President, Erwin Sellering, and the Mayor of the City of Rostock, Roland Methling, have been sent.

On day three, standards and positions of the German Association for Special Education (vds) were discussed. Approved were standards regarding the SNE focus on Hearing; see the download section on our website for details. The position paper on the SNE focus on Learning is currently being edited and will be available on our website soon. The standards concerning autism and diagnostics will be amended regarding the contents due to suggestions by the National Board and will be put up for discussion and co-ordination once again.

Translation: Ruth Stang