Following an increase approved on Wednesday during a Cabinet meeting and announced today, support for private special education institutions, cooperatives, and associations for the 2025/2026 academic year has been increased to 12.6 million euros.
“This increase will allow for more students to be covered, addressing needs that were not initially identified and therefore not anticipated in the Cabinet Resolution published in May 2025,” emphasized the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation.
In September, five private schools wrote to parliament warning of the underfunding of special education, which could jeopardize the operation of schools that receive students referred by the Ministry of Education due to their inability to attend general education.
At that time, the executive director of the Association of Private and Cooperative Educational Establishments (AEEP), representing these schools, explained that the amount of the contribution paid per student had not been updated since 2008. This changed in 2023 when the government, then led by António Costa, revised it after a school announced its closure due to financial difficulties.
The update was approximately 27%, increasing the amount granted to students aged 6 to 18 from 511.89 to 651.26 euros per month, a rise schools claim is insufficient.
Annually, schools receive about 7,000 euros per student. However, Rodrigo Queiroz e Melo stated that maintaining support for children and young people with special educational needs would require 11,500 euros per student, an additional 2.1 million euros annually to fund nearly 490 students.
According to Minister Fernando Alexandre’s office, the Government is also working on the legal framework for Inclusive Education, “through which the financial support for the sector will be reviewed.”
