Education for the Disabled

Physical disability
Children with physical disabilities, depending on the nature, extent of disability and availability of local specialised institutions, attend either such institutions or special classes within regular schools. As of 2007, there were 80 schools for the blind and the children with poor eyesight; their school term is extended to 12 years and classes are limited to 9-12 pupils per teacher. Education for the deaf is provided by 99 specialized kindergartens and 207 secondary boarding schools; children who were born deaf are admitted to specialized kindergartens as early as possible, ideally from 18 months of age; they are schooled separately from children who lost hearing after acquiring basic speech skills. Vocational schools for the working deaf people who have not completed secondary education exist in five cities only. Another wide network of specializes institutions takes care of children with mobility disorders. 60-70% of all children with cerebral palsy are schooled through this channel. Children are admitted to specialises kindergartens at three or four years of age and are streamed into narrow specialty groups; the specialisation continues throughout their school term that may extend to thirteen years. The system, however, is not ready to accept children who also display evident developmental disability; they have no other option than home schooling. All graduates of physical disability schools are entitled to the same level of secondary education certificates as normal graduates.

There are 42 specialised vocational training (non-degree) colleges for disabled people; most notable are the School of Music for the Blind in Kursk and Medical School for the Blind in Kislovodsk. Fully segregated undergraduate education is provided by two colleges: the Institute of Arts for the Disabled (enrollment of 158 students in 2007) and the Social Humanitarian Institute (enrollment of 250 students), both in Moscow. Other institutions provide semi-segregated training (specialized groups within normal college environment) or declare full disability access of their regular classes. Bauman Moscow State Technical University and Chelyabinsk State University have the highest number of disabled students (170 each, 2007). Bauman University focuses on education for the deaf; Herzen Pedagogical Institute enroll different groups of physical disability. However, independent studies assert that the universities fail to integrate people with disabilities into their academic and social life.

Mental disability
An estimated 20% of children leaving kindergarten fail to adjust to elementary school requirements and are in need of special schooling. Children with delayed development who may return to normal schools and study along with normal children are trained at compensatory classes within regular schools. The system is intended to prepare these children for normal school at the earliest possible age, closing (compensating) the gap between them and normal students. It is a relatively new development that began in the 1970s and gained national approval in the 1990s.

Persistent but mild mental disabilities that preclude co-education with normal children in the foreseeable future but do not qualify as moderate, heavy, or severe retardation require specialized correction (Russian: коррекционные) boarding schools that extend from 8-9 to 18-21 years of age. Their task is to adapt the person to living in a modern society, rather than to subsequent education.

Children with stronger forms of intellectual disability are, as of 2008, mostly excluded from the education system. Some are trained within severe disability groups of the correction boarding schools and orphanages, others are aided only through counseling.