The World Assembly,
Applauding previous legislative efforts to ensure that everyone, including the disabled, have the right to basic education,
Concerned that "disability" is often understood to mean a physical condition that, for example, requires one to use a wheelchair to move about,
Worried that this allows nations to ignore the special needs of children who have difficulties learning in a normal class environment due to mental disabilities,
Hoping to provide guidance for member nations with the difficulties of educating these children,
Hereby,
1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution;
- a "child" as an inhabitant of a WA member nation who is under the age of majority in that nation,
- a "medical specialist" as a medical professional specialized in mental disabilities that are likely to cause serious learning difficulties,
- "learning challenges" as serious problems with the attention, communication or understanding required to attend regular basic education, which are caused by an irreversible mental disability,
- a "mentally challenged student" as a child who has been evaluated by medical specialists to suffer from at least one of the learning challenges,
- a "mentally disabled student" as a child, who has been evaluated by medical specialists to suffer from all of the learning challenges,
2. Requires that member nations;
- Provide learning ability evaluation service for all children nearing the age for entering basic education, if their caretaker or attending physician has reason to suspect they may be mentally disabled, or when the child has demonstrated an inability to learn normally during their first year of education,
- Institute a training program for special education teachers, if such does not already exist, to train education professionals who will have the needed skills to educate children with mental disabilities,
- Provide, to the best of their ability, all mentally challenged students with basic education; either as part of the regular class, a separate class taught by a special education teacher, or individual instruction by a special education teacher or a similarly accredited instructor,
3. Additionally requires that member nations also attempt to provide all mentally disabled students with basic education, or as much of it as is possible based on their level of understanding; either as a separate class taught by a special education teacher, or individual instruction by a special education teacher or a similarly accredited instructor,
4. Encourages member nations to set up a training program, if such does not already exist, for the caretakers of all children with mental disabilities to become accredited instructors for their own children, if they should choose homeschooling,
5. Requires the homeschooling curriculum to follow that of the public education system for children with mental disabilities, to ensure the quality of education,
6. Allows member nations to restrict the learning ability evaluation service to children who are legal residents of the nation,
7. Reaffirms that this resolution only concerns those children who have serious learning difficulties caused by irreversible mental disabilities.
