Statped

Statped is a national service for special needs education made up of four regions and a main office located in Oslo. Statped work in six defined core areas: the hearing impaired, the visually impaired, the deaf-blind, those with language and speech difficulties, those with acquired brain injury and those with learning difficulties. Norwegian pupils are entitled to teaching that is as specially-adapted as possible, and as far as possible and advisable, this should take place in the local mainstream school. In many cases, schools and local authorities will need guidance and competence and Statped assists local authorities in this work and provides special teaching services at individual and system level in areas in which the country’s 430 local authorities do not have sufficient competence. Inclusion in mainstream schools is a very important objective of Norwegian educational policy. This implies that most national special need schools will be converted into competence centres with the emphasis on part-time courses for pupils and for the parents and guardians of deaf, blind and deaf-blind children and pupils needing alternative, supplementary communication. Other teaching will take place at the school in the pupil’s own local authority area, but with individual adaptation. Two national schools will remain beyond 2014. These are the school for the deaf in Trondheim and the school for the deaf-blind in Oslo.