Children thrive when their caregivers thrive. The Special Rapporteur reminds us that the well-being of children with disabilities is bound to the well-being of their families—especially mothers, who carry most of the invisible labour. When schools fail to support families, they create conditions that push children toward exclusion or even institutionalisation. Families are often forced into crisis because services and supports are absent, leaving children more vulnerable to exclusion, segregation, or institutionalisation.
This is not only a matter of fairness or compassion—it is a matter of international human rights law. Under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, States are obligated to ensure inclusive education and to protect caregivers from discrimination by association. This global framing strengthens local advocacy, showing that schools and governments are not offering discretionary supports but fulfilling binding legal duties.
Key education-related insights
- Institutionalisation as failure of support: Children with disabilities are disproportionately placed in institutions, not because families want this, but because schools and community systems fail to provide accessible and inclusive education and care.
- Schools as primary sites of support or exclusion: Education settings frequently reproduce discrimination, either by denying accommodations or by failing to provide adequate supports for participation.
- Rights-based framing: Denial of inclusive education or caregiver support amounts to disability-based discrimination, including discrimination by association against parents who advocate for their children.
Advocacy implications for caregivers
- Systemic co-responsibility: Care and support should be shared responsibilities between families, schools, communities, and the government—not left as unpaid labour for mothers.
- Intersectional discrimination: Parents, especially women, often experience discrimination because they are associated with disability, which compounds their advocacy burden.
- Need for family-strengthening measures: Policy and advocacy must press for accessible education, respite care, flexible work policies, and coordinated support systems so families are not forced into impossible choices.
- Evidence-based advocacy: Families and caregivers contribute critical knowledge through surveys, testimonies, and lived experience consultations, which should shape education and care reforms.
- Gender and labour: The unpaid care work demanded of mothers is feminised and undervalued. When schools outsource inclusion to mothers, they deepen gender inequality and limit women’s participation in work and civic life.
Call to action for education advocates
- Use the language of discrimination by association in appeals, complaints, and correspondence with schools.
- Insist that inclusive supports be delivered as collective responsibilities rather than personal sacrifices.
- Cite this UN report in advocacy letters to boards, ministries, and tribunals to frame demands in the language of international human rights law.
