Special Education in the People's Republic of China: Characteristics and Practices.

This paper provides an overview of the policies, process, and practice of special education in the People's Republic of China. Individual sections address the following topics: historical perspectives; legislative highlights (especially China's 1986 compulsory education law and the law on the protection of people with disabilities passed in 1991); the purpose of special education; the legal definition of disability; classification and prevalence of disabilities (concluding that 4.9 percent of the total population is disabled); service delivery options (special schools, special classes, and regular class placement); number of children receiving services (fewer than 200,000 out of about 8 million children with disabilities are receiving special education services); curricula perspectives (which adhere to a national model and stress group instruction); personnel preparation (only 5 of 1,075 universities train special educators); adult services (emphasis is on enhancing employment opportunities); and family education (some parent education efforts are underway). The tremendous growth of special education in China over the past 15 years is noted. Four tables provide incidence figures of children with disabilities and trends since 1980, and course requirements in teacher preparation programs. Contains nine references. (DB)