Special education and school inclusion in municipal education plans of baixada fluminense: progress, contradictions and perspectives

Since 2003, Brazil has increased financial investments and education plans aiming at guaranteeing educational and social rights to the target audience of Special Education, especially the National Policy on Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education, which began in 2008. In this context, the recent debate on Goal # 4 of the National Education Plan and its implementation in municipal education systems was condensed revealing political conflicts of interests and views in dispute. Given this political context, this paper discusses how seven municipalities of Baixada Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro Brazil) incorporated the indications of Goal # 4 in their Municipal Education Plans. In methodological terms, we use the assumptions of descriptive-analytic research, focusing on local documents in dialogue with national documents. Our analyses problematize, among other aspects, contradictions, advances and disputes between different actors that operate in the field of the rights of people with disabilities.