Education | How Berlin is reducing inclusion in schools

When Sarina Neumann-Ranze talks about her son's school, she gets excited. "The school's concept has been praised by everyone," she says of the school at Strauchwiese in Pankow. "Everyone works together as a team." Even parents who lived outside the school's catchment area applied for places at the inclusive elementary school. Neumann-Ranze believes it's a "flagship project" that should serve as a model for other schools.

The Strauchwiese School is actually two schools: a primary school and a special needs center for students with speech disorders. However, the students from both schools are taught together. Divided across two corridors, the children are taught in learning groups of 16 to 18 students – separated according to ability level, not based on whether a student has a language impairment. On average, one-third of the students in each learning group have special needs. Separate instruction for children with special needs is available only for short periods and exclusively for special language support.

"It's a huge advantage for the children in the special needs program to learn from the other children," says Neumann-Ranze. "And for all the other children, it's good to see that not everyone fits the same mold." Acceptance extends far beyond the actual lessons. "When a child has a birthday, it's only natural that all the children are invited," says Neumann-Ranze.

But the supposed model project is on the verge of collapse. A letter to parents from March announced that the Strauchwiese School's educational concept would have to be discontinued for the new school year. The reason: The concept is not legally sound, and an immediate change is necessary. This is how a representative of the Pankow School Inspectorate explained it at a parents' meeting shortly thereafter. "The joint schooling of students from both school types in mixed classes, which has been practiced in recent years, does not comply with the applicable school regulations, particularly with regard to class size, resource utilization, and class organization," a spokesperson for the education administration responded to an inquiry from nd.

The news shocked the parents and children of the Strauchwiese School, says parent representative Sarina Neumann-Ranze. "We are being driven back into exclusion," she says. She considers the legal justification a pretext. "I have the impression that there's a political agenda."

The events at the Strauchwiese School are symptomatic of a city-wide development: "I would now clearly speak of a regression in school inclusion under the current Senate," said Christine Braunert-Rümenapf, Berlin's Commissioner for the Disabled, before the Education Committee last week. "With that, I was referring to the changed framework conditions and the reports of problems I have received," Braunert-Rümenapf told "nd" in a follow-up interview.

"We are committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and want to support and further develop inclusion in Berlin schools," states the coalition agreement between the CDU and SPD in Berlin. A recent interview with disability advocates gives the opposite impression. There's talk of a "reversal of inclusion."

The focus of criticism: the new special education ordinance, which the Senate Department of Education issued in March – despite protests from the Senate Department of Social Affairs. One provision in the ordinance, in particular, is causing heated debate: It stipulates that inclusive mainstream schools can permanently establish small classes for children with special needs. Previously, such small classes were only possible on a temporary basis .

CDU education politician Sandra Khalatbari defended the decision in the House of Representatives last week. "One-sided demands for exclusively co-ed classes don't help," she said. "Especially for neurodivergent children, co-ed schooling is not always the best concept." Inclusive and separate instruction in small classes could complement each other, Khalatbari said.

Christine Braunert-Rümenapf, the Commissioner for People with Disabilities, however, sees the danger that small classes could become "exclusion within inclusion" if they are not sufficiently integrated into school operations. "Small classes are not suitable for permanently advancing inclusion in schools," she says. Practical experience has shown that students in small classes are often excluded from school life. Braunert-Rümenapf can only envision small classes as temporary facilities. "There must be clear and binding regulations regarding the content of the learning opportunities," she says.

Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) offered reassurance in the House of Representatives last week. The small classes are intended only as a "temporary" institution, designed to enable previously unschooled children with special needs to ease into schooling . "In this way, we can create an opportunity for these children to return to school, at least for a limited period of time," she said. "It's not desirable, but it's a possibility."

Christine Braunert-Rümenapf, however, doubts that the intended goal can be achieved in this way. "If a child cannot attend school, you have to look at the conditions these children require on a case-by-case basis," she says. Blanket solutions are often not suitable. Critics fear that the introduction of small classes could also structurally weaken inclusive schools. This would divert social workers from inclusive classes and prevent them from providing support to the children with special needs.

So-called special needs schools would benefit from this development. These special needs schools—often disrespectfully called "special schools" in colloquial language—are actually considered a relic of the past. In the Hanseatic City of Bremen, for example, there are only three such schools left, which exclusively accept children with special needs. In Berlin, however, new special needs schools are to be established, for example, on Waidmannsluster Damm in Reinickendorf.

According to the Senate, the new special needs centers are necessary due to an increase in the number of students with a focus on "intellectual development," i.e., children with learning disabilities. State Secretary Torsten Kühne (CDU), responsible for school construction, argued last week that the construction of new special needs centers has structural advantages. A specific building type has been developed for the special needs centers, which includes therapy rooms and care pools. "It's not realistic to incorporate this into every new school," Kühne said. Many parents also consider the special needs centers to be a better solution for their children because the students there learn in smaller classes and the teachers are trained in special education.

"The educational opportunities at special needs schools are simply not the same," says Christine Braunert-Rümenapf, the State Commissioner for the Disabled. This has been empirically proven. Students at special needs schools are less likely to graduate than children with special needs who attend inclusive mainstream schools.

The fact that Berlin is now building new special needs schools is undermining inclusion efforts, warns Braunert-Rümenapf. "As long as massive resources are invested in special needs schools and inclusive schools are not equipped equally, one cannot speak of a genuine choice," she says. The fact that special needs schools are given preferential treatment in the distribution of scarce resources forces parents to decide whether to send their child to one of the special needs schools. "With the expansion of this expensive dual system, resources are lacking in inclusive schools," criticizes Braunert-Rümenapf.

At the Strauchwiese School in Pankow, resistance quickly arose against the school's supervisory board's plan to discontinue the school's inclusive approach. "In a survey, 96 percent of parents supported the existing approach," reports parent representative Sarina Neumann-Ranze. Shortly thereafter, a petition was initiated, which has since been signed by 1,900 people. Parents and students participated in a protest rally in front of the House of Representatives last week. "We are fighting against the unnecessary abolition of a functioning approach," says Neumann-Ranze.

Initial successes have already been achieved: In a conversation, a representative of the school supervisory authority made it clear to her that the educational concept should not be terminated for the new school year, says Neumann-Ranze. The possibility of continuing the concept in a new organizational form that could allay legal concerns is also currently under discussion. "The goal is not to reverse inclusion, but to create a clear organizational structure – with an inclusive offering in the primary school sector as well as a separate language support center for parents who choose this option," a spokesperson for the Senate administration responded to an inquiry from nd.

Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch has also now spoken out in favor of a continuation. "We have a strong interest in ensuring that schools can continue their current format of joint schooling," she said last week in the House of Representatives. She promised talks with those responsible.