Special Education Crisis: 381,000 Students, 26.2 Billion Shekels - And Still Not Enough Professionals
Hundreds of thousands of students are entitled to special education services, but the system struggles to provide them: a shortage of kindergarten teachers, teachers, and paramedical therapists is pushing parents toward separate frameworks. "We are in a state of emergency, the ones losing out are the children."
"We are in a state of emergency, the ones losing out are the children," says Michal Mankes, VP of Education, Welfare, and Society at the Federation of Local Authorities. "There is a sin here of putting a plaster on a plaster. There are not enough remedial teachers, there are not enough paramedical therapists, and because there are not enough professionals, they attach a teaching assistant to the child who does holy work, does everything in their power, but at a certain stage can no longer advance them. As the child grows, the effectiveness of the assistant attached as a substitute for a paramedical therapist or a remedial teacher decreases."
In recent years, the Israeli education system has been dealing with a constant increase in the number of students entitled to special education services. The numbers are alarming: 381,972 students are studying in special education, which is 14.8% of all students in the system. Of these, a record of 227,159 students are integrated into kindergartens and classes in general education.
The special education budget has grown significantly in recent years and reached about 26.2 billion shekels in 2026. The Ministry of Education transfers huge budgets, but it is simply not enough, because money is not the main thing. The system simply does not have the ability to integrate students in an optimal way due to a shortage of kindergarten teachers, teachers, and paramedical therapists.
Parents of children with special needs, for example, those diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, are allowed to choose the type of framework. They can choose between two main frameworks: kindergartens or schools designated for special education, or integration into general education - the child learns in a regular class and receives a personal integration package, such as a personal assistant, speech therapy hours, occupational therapy, and so on. Both systems suffer from a severe shortage of manpower and a host of other problems.
"The situation is getting worse"
Shiri Bar-Shalom, who lives in the Shapira neighborhood in Tel Aviv, is a mother of two autistic children. Her eldest daughter is entering ninth grade in an integrated setting, and her young son is entering fourth grade in a small special education class, with some hours integrated into a large class.
"My children never received all the rights and treatments they are entitled to, and it is getting worse due to a shortage of staff. It is like this in most cities in the country. First of all, there is a shortage of kindergarten teachers and special education teachers. In a 'small class,' there is supposed to be a teacher from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon; for my child, there is no second teacher (co-teacher) because there are no teachers. So in practice, from one-thirty in the afternoon in the class, the child is left with a teaching assistant, and it is simply irresponsible, because despite their good intentions, no one trained them to stay for hours with the students.
"Alongside this, there is a shortage of paramedical therapists, for example: a single number of speech therapists for hundreds or thousands of children. There are no occupational therapists. The therapy staff leaves for the private market because there is no decent salary."
Up to two students
The next crisis is around the corner. Yaffa Ben David, Secretary General of the Teachers' Union, also has grievances regarding the Ministry of Education. According to her, the number of integrated students (special education students in a regular class) is high. Sometimes it is about six integrated students in a class, which creates an unbearable burden on the educational teams and harms the learning ability of both the integrated students and the rest of the class.
She demands that starting from the upcoming school year (5787), the placement of more than two students with a personal package in one regular class will not be approved. She has even threatened that if the Ministry of Education does not meet the demand, she will take legal and organizational measures, up to declaring a labor dispute and a strike.
Michal Mankes concludes: "The gap between the policy to integrate as many students as possible into general education and the infrastructure and resources needed is growing. Local authorities hire assistants because the Ministry of Education does not have paramedical therapists. It is possible to increase the positions of special education teachers and paramedical therapists. It is possible to bring students of paramedical professions to integrate into the education system from the first day."
