Diversity of special educational needs of learners in inclusive school environments

<p><strong>Context and relevance.</strong> Inclusive education aimed at accepting and supporting the diversity of learners requires a clarification of the concept of special educational needs, previously focused on creating conditions for learners with disabilities, taking into account other learners with special educational needs. <strong>Objective.</strong> Updating the task of expanding the concept of special educational needs based on data on the distribution of learners in the categories of special educational needs in schools participating in the testing of the inclusive school model. <strong>Hypotheses.</strong> The inclusive educational environment of the pilot educational organizations participating in the testing of the inclusive school model is characterized by a diversity of special educational needs of learners. The number of learners with disabilities in the inclusive educational environment of the pilot schools is numerically comparable to the number of learners with other special educational needs. <strong>Methods and materials.</strong> The study involved 3238 learners from 109 classes of 55 schools in six regions of Russia: 1713 learners from 57 fourth grades and 1525 learners from 52 eighth grades. A frequency analysis of students in the categories of special educational needs was conducted. <strong>Results.</strong> The results showed that the share of students in the category of students with disabilities (7.10%) is comparable with the shares in the following categories: with a non-native Russian language — 3.74%, with giftedness — 3.92%, with deviant behavior — 2.87%, in a difficult life situation — 1.08%. <strong>Conclusions.</strong> The data obtained indicates the relevance of the tasks of expanding the concept of special educational needs, identifying students of various categories of special educational needs and developing technologies and methods for their psychological and pedagogical support. When creating inclusive conditions in educational organizations to take into account the entire spectrum of special educational needs, the principles of universal design and individualization of education are relevant.</p>