Schools and Disabilities: The Guarantor: "No more parental permission for therapists to enter classrooms."
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30 October 2025
Italy, the Guarantor for the rights of persons with disabilities
15th November 2025
In a recommendation dated October 23, 2025, the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities addresses a widespread and discriminatory practice: requiring the access of therapists and healthcare professionals to the classroom only after the informed consent of all parents in the class. This practice has, in effect, often denied students with severe disabilities, such as those with autism spectrum disorder, the right to continuity of therapy during school hours.
Reporting to the Guarantor
The issue arose from a report received by the Guarantor. The mother of a student with autism and severe disabilities (pursuant to Law 104/92) reported theimpossibility for the ASL doctor to access the classroom to carry out the therapy sessions required by the mandatory plan. The reason? The school had put everything on hold while waiting for every single parent in the class to fill out and sign an "informed consent form for access by external experts."
The Guarantor has ascertained that this is not an isolated caseIn many schools, school principals apply similar procedures, even requiring, in some regulations, that therapists submit a criminal record—a request deemed 'completely unjustified' for professionals already organically integrated into the National Health System.
Unconstitutional practice
Recommendation no. 1/2025, signed by the Authority's Board (Borgo, Vaia, Pelagatti), condemns these practices, defining them in contrast with supranational and constitutional principles which establish the right to education and health of students with disabilities, rights that 'prevail even over other interests'.
The Authority reminds that external healthcare professionals—employees of the Local Health Authority, accredited institutions, or freelancers involved in the therapeutic project—work exclusively for the student with disabilities, without interacting with the rest of the class and always in the presence of the teacher. Their work, therefore, does not violate the privacy of other students.
The recommendation
In light of this, the Guarantor recommends that all Regional School Offices change the regulations which provide for more restrictive procedures.
The therapist's access must be authorised by the school principal, following a simple communication to teachers and parents, and a statement from the specialist regarding their commitment to confidentiality. Classroom access can no longer be "subjected to, and therefore limited, delayed, or denied" by the lack of consent of even one parent.
Marta Strinati
Picture of Wilfried Pohnke da Pixabay
References
National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Recommendation 1/2025
