Promises to action: A call to fulfill the right to learn for children with disabilities

This blog was originally posted on globalpartnership.org, by Jacqueline Jodl, Special Olympics International, on April 1, 2025

A call to action for global education and government leaders to make good on their commitments to education that includes every child and meets all learning needs.

Education is the cornerstone of opportunity, but for millions of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, it remains out of reach.

This year, Special Olympics issues its second annual Global State of Inclusion in Education letter - a call to action for global education and government leaders to make good on their commitments to education that includes every child and meets all learning needs.

With the 2025 Global Disability Summit starting tomorrow, the world has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to confront the uncomfortable truth: inclusion has been promised but not delivered.

It’s time to move from policy pledges to bold, coordinated action—action backed by financing, technology designed with all learners in mind and the political will to make inclusion a global reality.

The state of inclusion: A reality check

While many governments have ratified international treaties that guarantee the right to education for students with disabilities, systemic gaps remain.

Over 65 million children with disabilities worldwide are still out of school.

Even in classrooms, barriers to full participation in education persist, ranging from inadequate teacher training to the lack of adaptive technologies.

Four key developments highlight both challenges and opportunities for removing barriers to education for children with disabilities:

• The funding gap: Despite evidence that inclusion drives better learning outcomes for all students, governments consistently underfund inclusive policies and practices. Initiatives like Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools demonstrate that inclusive practices can serve as catalysts for systemic change, but scaling these efforts requires significant investment.
• The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to close or exacerbate gaps: Artificial intelligence is transforming education, offering unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning and a promising tool for children with disabilities. However, without deliberate inclusion of the community of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in its development, AI risks perpetuating inequities between learners with disabilities and those without.
  To harness AI's potential, policy makers and tech leaders must prioritize accessibility and inclusivity. For students with disabilities, AI can be another barrier to learning if accessibility is not built into design from the start. If the voices and needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are not represented in development, these technologies risk reinforcing the very exclusion we are trying to overcome.
• The need for clear frameworks: Most education systems lack concrete definitions of inclusion, leaving teachers and school leaders without the tools to create truly inclusive environments for all learners—and, most importantly, leaving students without the skills they need to be agents of change and foster school environments where their peers feel connected and find purpose in their education. To address this gap, Special Olympics and the Harvard Graduate School of Education have developed an open-source framework called Inclusive Mindsets & Behaviors.
• The need to close knowledge gaps: The lack of context-specific research on best practices creates a critical knowledge gap, hindering effective support for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, reinforcing cycles of exclusion. Without strong evidence to guide policy and practice, education systems fall short of meeting their needs. In response to a critical dearth of data-driven research studies on inclusion and its benefits, The Special Olympics Global Center for Inclusion in Education launched its comprehensive research roadmap, “A Global Research Agenda for Building Inclusive Learning Environments” (read here for the executive summary). Spearheaded by the Global Center’s Research Collaborative comprising scholars from top global universities including Yale University, Harvard University and New York University Abu Dhabi—the Research Agenda will be released on the sidelines of the 2025 Global Disability Summit - a convening of global, regional and national stakeholders that share the same goal vision for development and humanitarian action that includes all children with disabilities.

Change to unlock the power of education that truly includes all

In every corner of the globe, progress is being made proof that change is possible when governments, educators, researchers and communities come together. Yet, the global state of inclusion is clear: the promise of education that meets the needs of all learners remains unfulfilled for too many.

The cost of inaction is devastating. Not just for children with disabilities who are left behind, but for all of us as societies who then lose out on their unique talents, perspectives and contributions.

Inclusive education doesn’t just benefit these children with disabilities: it creates stronger, more empathetic communities and unlocks economic and social potential for everyone.

Yet, the progress we’ve seen is uneven and far too slow. Stark disparities in education persist—an education crisis compounded by a global shortage of 44 million teachers - a crisis that undermines the quality of education and students’ learning outcomes.

National and international investment in education is also declining along with foreign assistance dedicated to education.

Still, there are bright spots and models across the world that are worth emulating and proof social inclusion is possible and attainable.

In the Asia Pacific region, President of the Maldives Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced that his administration would prioritize addressing the needs of learners with disabilities. This has led to tangible action by the Ministry of Education in partnership with UNICEF and the World Bank that mobilized US$9.5 million through GPE to ensure a more equitable and inclusive approach to education and learning.

In Africa, Sierra Leone has begun implementing a national policy on radical inclusion in schools through a 5-year implementation plan (2021–2026).

The plan targets the most vulnerable learners including children with disabilities and places inclusion at the center of the country’s education system, aiming to benefit all learners and their broader communities.

Join the movement

As we approach the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, we can no longer settle for isolated stories of success. It’s time to make inclusion a reality everywhere—for every child, in every school.

To make this happen, global leaders must:

• Commit and mobilize financing for inclusive education initiatives.
• Demand and implement artificial intelligence technology that serves all learners.
• Equip and empower educators and students with the training and tools to create classrooms and schools that include all learners.
• Address research knowledge gaps and build and align data systems to track progress on supporting children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Inclusion is not just a policy—it's a choice. Achieving this vision of inclusion is not the responsibility of one group alone—it requires everyone to lean in.

Advocate for change in your communities. Support initiatives that break down barriers. Together we can ensure that every child, regardless of ability, has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive.

The challenges may be significant, but the vision of a truly inclusive world is within reach.

As Dr. Timothy Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics reminds us: The infrastructure of exclusion wasn't built in a day, and it won't be dismantled in a day. But each step forward brings us closer to our goal.