"BACKGROUND AND NEEDIn many EU27 countries the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF, WHO 2005) is introduced as a common language to describe (special) educational needs. In AT regulations foresee that special educational expertise in school has to be based on ICF (Rundschreiben 23/1, BMB); in CH both the SSG (Schulstandortgespräche) and SAV (Strukturiertes Abklärungsverfahren) use ICF countrywide as common structuring language and WHO qualifier to assess the severity of problems. “A common language” disseminates and exploits recent Erasmus+ tools (www.icfcy-meduse.eu) from the preschool and health into the school sector: Schools in most EU27 seem rarely prepared to use this UN-convention conform and politically required system. By increasing knowledge and competences for professionals in school ICF contributes to high quality skills to address inclusive challenges, to social cohesion and full participation De-stigmatization is supported as parents and pupils (using adapted ICF) are a part of the “team around the child”. ICF is a holistic way to describe abilities and restrictions of a person with a health problem and a category system to assess the needs and eligibility of e.g. support needs in school. In DE the new Law on Participation (Bundesteilhabegesetz) at least for services for persons with disabilities (PwD) oblige the focus on “ICF-participation”. Phoenix (DE) also introduced ICF to plan individual support goals in a team. In MK ICF is generally recommended for teachers (Brochure of Ministry of Education, UNICEF). In TR the potential of ICF to be used as a meta language between diverse sectors is highlighted. In practice the approx. 1400 items describing relevant aspects of education require intensive “on the job” training and availability of tools: Lack in both areas partly explain why school systems are still not adequately prepared. However ICF can increase the quality of schooling-processes within global inclusive strategies by a) bringing together diverse sector perspectives b) providing a common inclusive language and c) match special needs with support resources (Styrian BHG 2004. The focus is on what a pupil is able to do and how the environment is supportive. ICD 10, e.g. focuses on deficits (in MK still called “defects”) and tend to rely on a medical understanding of disability. However at the moment – with exception of CH – no tools for teachers or other professionals in school are available to implement ICF. Innovatively also the parents and the pupils are seen as full members of the “team around the child” to increase empowerment, citizenship and equal participation of all actors. The use of a common inclusive language in school therefore increases the quality of inclusive support as all involved groups within a team (including the parents an d children) use ONE terminology. Recent Erasmus+ www.icfcy-meduse.eu already created training materials and ICT tools focusing on pediatric and preschool services. The use of ICF for teachers (age-group and curriculum issues will be addressed), for school psychologists ( “translation of test-results into ICF codes and qualifiers), of parents (family friendly version of ICF) and of pupils (assessment) are adressed. OBJECTIVES “Common inclusive language” increases key inclusive competences for school professionals by disseminating, adapting and exploiting recent ICF-EU products. ACTIVITIES a) Exploiting and adapting ICF training materials towards the school setting b) Actively involving parents and pupils as fully participating partners by providing them with tools (e.g. self assessment and a family-friendly version for parents) c) “translation” processes of tools for school psychologists (e.g. tests) into ICF-language RESULTS (exploitation of www.icfcy-meduse.eu) O1: Briefing Package ICF in School for teachers ( 4 modules) O2: “Lets use the same language”: Family-friendly ICF-brochure for parents O3: “Let me be part of the team”: ICFself assessment for children with special educational needs (based on previous pilot data with adolescent learners) O4: “ICF Test-translator”: adaptation of ICF “practice translator” to match the results of psychological tests with ICF-items and WHO qualifier. IMPACT Focus on abilities rather than disability Awareness rising, knowledge and use in school systems (teachers, school psychologists etc) as legally required Mainstream into continuos training for teachers, psychologists Full participation of disadvantaged groups Certification towards ""ICF train-the-trainer"" CONSORTIUMMultisectoral and geografical: (PH-ST with 2 Praxisschulen, Phoenix -School DE & SVS Stip, MK), ICF-training center MSH (DE), ICF-research (Dr.Pretis, AT), Association of School Psychologists (AT), developmental specialists (TR), dissemination partner (MK) and parent association (TR) and strategic partners."

"<< Background >>Inclusion of students with disabilities (SwD) in mainstream education is regarded as a top priority in the national legislations of the partner countries, all of which signatories of international documents promoting inclusion (the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO Salamanca Statement). The documents require the States Parties to ensure that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education. However, significant differences are detected between the legal provisions and the circumstances. Also, inclusion rates differ not only among countries, but also among regions/states: in AT they range from 50 to 95%, in DE from 26 to 83%, in TR 68% inclusion nationally. There are no official data for MK, except that 0.4% of the children enrolled in regular primary schools in 19/20 had some type of disability. In 2001, the WHO published the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), focusing on a functional understanding of health. ICF offers an ability-based, interacting and holistic view of SwD in diverse settings. As a non-stigmatising meta-language, it increases participation, goal-oriented planning for teachers, full participation of the “team around the family"", and transparency of interventions.National education systems are not always fully prepared for mainstream inclusion, so GAPS between the future strategy and the status quo are visible. In its Education Strategy 2018-2025, the government of North Macedonia sets increasing and improving inclusion in education as a priority, but also recognizes a lack of capacity: lack of mechanisms; discriminatory attitudes among parents, teachers, and peers; educators’ lack of competences; scarcity of didactic materials, resources and aids; insufficient no. of related professionals (spec. educators, psychologists, assistants). Teachers report lack of concrete methodologies concerning team-work and didactic processes for ALL children. Necessary exchange processes with other relevant sectors (health/social) are challenging due to different professional description systems.The participating organisations have sufficient knowledge, skills, and experience in inclusion, ICF, and education of students with disabilities, so they feel the obligation and the need to contribute to fostering inclusion and increasing quality of education for all children. The project goal is to increase the quality of education by increased participation goal-orientation and enhances inclusion and equity; it creates synergies between different sectors related to education of SwD by introducing ICF and providing team teaching methodsThe project addresses the NEEDS to:- Address the developmental situation of SwD in a common language for all;- Cooperate in relevant teams at school (with other teachers in the team and other professionals in the “team around the family”);- Apply diverse teaching methods to provide inclusive education<< Objectives >>The partners in the project ""Inclusion-Friendly Classroom: The ICF as a Problem Solving Tool for the Team around the Child in Educational Settings"" have set the GOAL to increase the quality of education by increased participation goal-orientation and enhance inclusion and equity. The consortium creates synergies between different sectors related to education of students/pupils with disabilities (SwD) by introducing ICF and providing team teaching methods. The OBJECTIVES towards achieving the goal of the project are:1. To enhance the skills of educators towards a COMMON ability-based and participation-focused language by using ICF;2. To increase (participation) goal orientation and inclusiveness in the classroom by means of an ICF evaluation tool; 3. To increase team work in the “team around the family”4. To promote inclusion by facilitating teaching processes based on reflective self-learning of teachers.<< Implementation >>Sharing expertise and validated experience on team teaching, the Partners jointly design the results (see: www.icf-school.eu or Pretis, 2020), pilot them, and share results through multiplier events (linked to needs). The usability of the outcomes is validated by external steering groups. Based on strategic partnerships (support letters by the Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science and the Board of Education Styria - Austria , teacher network - 3 model regions of inclusion in AT, Corum RAM Guidance and Research Centre of the MoE in TR) tools are prepared to be mainstreamed for ALL schools.<< Results >>Addressing the needs of the target groups - educational staff in primary and preschool institutions (teachers, special teachers, teaching assistants, rehabilitators, therapists), but also parents, administration, policy makers and SwD, the project is expected to result in:- Increased communication and exchange concerning children with disabilities, and increased efficiency of teaching processes by using a common language in school and participation goal orientation.- Increased inclusive teaching competences and increased (participation-)goal orientation as a key factor of meaningful (school and preschool) support, achieved by use of the provided methodological tools and guidance.Three project products (outcomes) have been plan as tools towards achieving the project goal and objectives:Project result 1: “ICF Inclusion Checklist” – a tool for educators, including parents, to evaluate inclusive acting in the classroom and functionally describe the student’s health situation and his/her education support needs;Project result 2: “Participation Goal Incubator” - a guide which provides concrete self-guided teacher training on how to create ICF-based meaningful participation goals based on functional descriptions with and for students with disabilities; and Project result 3: “Teachers-Teamwork-Toolkit” – a toolkit providing team-teaching methodologies to help teachers cooperate and coordinate classroom activities in the “team around the family”.The positive impact of the project results includes:1) Participation goal orientation in school is increased based on the number of users. 2) Teachers act more inclusively in the classroom: using the ICF tools increase inclusive thinking of teachers and increase outcome orientation by using the WHO classifiers. 3) Team-teaching processes are evidence-oriented and improve team coordination/cooperation. Teachers benefit from concrete didactic tools and didactic support methods for ALL children.4) Using the ICF-based goal setting tools the individual match between goals and necessary teachings strategies for ALL students in classrooms therefore will be increased. On classroom level this will be measured by selected focus groups with SwD or parents."

"<< Objectives >>The “Int.. Classification of Functionning, Disability and Health“ (ICF) enabled a bio-psycho-social, ability based and non-stigmatizing approach, focusing on „participation“. ICF is included in regulations of additional support needs in most EU27; implementation in schools is still pending. Only assessing bodies (SPF-Gutachter, DMs) learnt about ICF in HLGs (Styria and NÖ) and pilot regions. For Inclusive and mainstream teachers (planning and performing support) a knowledge/skill gap is bridged<< Implementation >>1 After the tool-development pilots are performed in AT (pre-/inservice teacher training and Praxisschulen), in MK (School administration) and TR. 2 Together with BDs (Stmk, NÖ, W) and PHs, 5 ICF-assessment centers in MK, expert networks in TR outcomes are dissminated.3 Mainstreaming: 15-20% of inclusive teachers in AT are reached, in NÖ existing electronic Förderplan is amended. MK School Administration ensures mainstream in the Central region. RAM (TR) reaches 4000 teachers within trainings.<< Results >>1) ICF-support-plan: (anonymous) online tool for inclusive and mainstream teachers to plan and perform additional educational support (based on ICF-categories and participation goals). This ""plan"" is linked to1a: training modules previous Erasmus+ projects in AT, DE, MK, UNICEF (BG, TR)1b: ICF Best practice-expert-plans from previous projects1c: FAQ to provide target specific answers for teachers1d: Link to indepth-tools from recent Erasmus+ (www.icfcy-meduse.eu, www.icf-school.eu, ""I am”)"

Society is still far from fully achieving the rights of people with disabilities, especially girls and women from culturally minoritised groups. Analysing inequality from an intersectional perspective allows us to highlight how disadvantage derives from an interweaving of conditions that, taken in isolation, fail to capture the serious discriminatory effects that result from their intersection. FRIDA's objective is to design actions that promote the agency of girls and women with disabilities from culturally minoritised groups in the educational, work and family spheres, based on a legislative mapping of progress in the fundamental rights of these people in each country. The consortium comprises 10 academic entities (4 from Latin America and one from Africa) and 5 non-academic entities from 11 countries. From an interdisciplinary perspective, it aims to define priorities that reflect the demands of girls and women with disabilities from culturally minoritised groups, as well as the barriers and levers in educational, employment and socio-family services through an inclusive research methodology to advance in the design of innovative and inclusive proposals, promoting the democratisation of research processes and the exchange of good inclusive practices.The main results of the project will be the elaboration of an International comparative report on the rights of girls and women from an interseccional perspective, a Toolkit for practitioners to promoting the agency for these girls and women in the educational, work and family spheres and the creation of an interactive online platform to make visible or denounce oppressive situations and to share and respond to the priorities expressed by these girls and women. It also includes recommendations for policy-makers and researchers to optimise community resources and to generate inclusive research projects, promoting innovative actions for the agency of girls and women with disabilities from culturally minoritised groups.

To prevent the spreading of COVID-19 pandemic, most governments across the world have taken measures to close schools, resulting in distance learning. During this time, it has become clear that different school realties can impact students’ education and widen existing differences between students even more, which has brought issues of educational justice and equal opportunity to the fore. While many schools have risen to the challenge and developed effective distance learning forms, others have fallen behind, leaving some learners without access to quality education. Studies have shown that the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the exclusion of students with disabilities from education, showing they are least likely to benefit from distance learning (UN, 2020). Teachers had to adapt to new pedagogical concepts and modes of delivery of teaching for which they either have not been trained in or did not have sufficient guidance or resources on how to include students with disabilities in distance learning. Responding to this problem, the project “Digitalisation and inclusive education: Leaving no one behind in the digital era” (DigIn), will increase the participation of students with various disabilities in digital education and respond to the “Innovative practices in a digital era” priority by strengthening the profiles of teachers and hence foster social inclusion. The goal is to empower and professionalise teachers from various age groups and different school types not only in the field of digital education but also in inclusive education. Recognising this need, the proposed project sets out to fill the gap. The project objectives are to: •Design and implement a teacher training for in-service teachers that will foster teachers’ digital competence and increase their capacity to support students with disabilities in either the inclusive classroom, in a blended learning format or during distance learning. •Offer the teacher training after the project ends as an online resource for all interested pre-service and in-service teachers. •Design new techniques and materials for including students with disabilities in digital education, including first-person accounts from teachers, teaching videos and lesson plans and best-practice examples. •Develop tools that will offer advice and guidance for teachers about the accessibility of existing tools (e.g. communication platforms, learning apps, etc.) based on the Universal-Design for Learning criteria and their pedagogical strategies (Hall, Meyer, & Rose, 2012).•Evaluate the digital potential and inclusive practices of schools. To achieve these objectives, the DigIn project is a collaboration between six partners in four countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and North Macedonia. The project partnership consists of three higher educational institutions, a school and two non-governmental organizations working in the field of teacher education. The countries have different educational systems and resources, which allows for different ways to include students with disabilities in digital education under various circumstances to be uncovered. The substantial differences between the participating countries—in terms of the development-stage of inclusive education and experiences with digital education—and the actor constellations—between universities, schools and non-governmental organisations—are essential for the strategic partnership. These differences represent a significant resource for DigIn due to the possibility of comparing, discussing, exchanging and reflecting upon examples and experiences in the field of digital education and inclusive education. Transnational research will be conducted throughout the project.The intended outcomes are:1.Teacher training with a total of five modules 2.Best-Practice-Examples Toolkit 3.To(ol)-Check instrument 4.In(novation)-Check instrument 5.One cross country comparison of the digital potential of inclusive schools using the SELFIE tool6.Case studies (four in total) 7.Five academic publications that will report the finds internationally. Within the project, we aim to foster the dialogue between European countries on inclusive and digital education for students with disabilities, professionalise teachers for this task and exchange best-practice examples. The project will have a direct impact on EU policies of social inclusion and strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions through powerful teacher professional development with innovative practices that are necessary in a digital era.