Analysis of requests to the public ministry on the right of people with disabilities to education

Abstract

This paper analyzes the requests regarding the right to education of the Special Education target population that reach the Special Education Action Group (Grupo de Atuação Especial de Educação – GEDUC) of the Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo, from its creation in 2011 until the end of 2017, totaling 163 procedures. It seeks to understand with what purpose, in what manner and by which sectors of society such an instance is triggered. The following categories were used: proponents, types of claims, education network to which they refer and variation in the number of requests over the years. It is noticed that most of the requests addressed to the Public Ministry are proposed by family members of people with disabilities, referring to claims involving support for schooling in common classes of regular schools, especially in the state school system of São Paulo. As for the variation in requests, there is a large number of requests in the first years after the creation of GEDUC, with a decrease in recent years, which could be related to the way this Group has been operating. There is a reconfiguration of GEDUC’s actions over the period from 2011 to 2017, with the presence of elements representative of the willingness to act in the transposition of the initial complaint to the underlying effective demand. Thus, instead of direct responses requiring the execution of the request by the represented parties, more time-consuming actions are found to promote dialogue on the problem posed. It is understood, therefore, that requests can be used as a tool to expand and qualify the dialogue between the Public Ministry, civil society and the Executive Branch, aiming at the universalization of the right to education.