Parental Strategies for Inclusive School Choices. A Qualitative Exploratory Study

Romanian legislation allows children with special educational needs (SEN) to be admitted to both mainstream and special schools. The choice of school has consequences on the child's educational trajectory. Using a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews with parents of pupils with SEN, the article proposes to answer the questions: Are parents the key players in the inclusion of children with SEN? What are the expectations and fears of parents towards inclusive education? What strategies do parents use to send them to mainstream education? How is the choice of an educational institution made in the context of SEN? The conclusion of the research is that parents of children with SEN are the key players of school inclusion. Their engagement in the search for the best inclusive educational institution is based on several strategies. Some of them involve a mobilization of the parents' social capital (at the school where they had other children or through a recommendation from specialists). Other strategies aim at appealing to attitudes of superiority (the legal right of the child), deliberately hiding the child's problems or postponing schooling.