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Republic of the Philippines _f/9” RECEIVED

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES © psie.22 NOV 2016
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SEVENTEENTH (17'") CONGRESS \
First Regular Session

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House Bill No. 4488

Introduced by REPRESENTATIVE ERIC L. OLIVAREZ

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The State has the responsibility to provide free access to
education for its citizens, especially those who have difficulty
availing the same. Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution mandates
the State to protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality
education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make
such education accessible to all. Indeed, state intervention becomes
so crucial and imperative when it comes to providing services to the
groups that need government attention the most. In short, the idea
is to equally serve its constituents, no matter how vastly different
they are.

Aside from the poor, children with special needs also need to
be attended to as this group is very vulnerable because of their
medical condition.

Special children (or children with special needs) are children
with a variety of different disabilities and their situation require
special intervention, services, or support. These kids need constant
monitoring and treatment and usually entails very challenging
parenting and nurturing. However, these kids, we must all
recognize, are still capable of learning and growing as people just
like all the other normal kids, except only that they acquire
information and knowledge rather differently. They are capable of

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understanding although it usually entails a special method or
program to get them to absorb a learning material.

As such, this group of people needs the intervention and the
help of the State not just to provide them education that they want,
but also to encourage them to seize the opportunity to be educated
and make them and their families realize that special children can
excel in their own fields, in their own ways without regard to their
disabilities.

This bill seeks to compel every city in this country to provide
for special education centers that will exclusively serve the needs of
our special children and that will enhance and hone their special
abilities, talents and skills, which other public schools might fall
short on giving. With the establishment of special education centers
with special curricula and programs, these special children will be
given sufficient focus and attention which can help expedite their
learning process.

Certainly, education is a very important and powerful weapon
one can possess to fight off poverty and repression. Therefore, it is
only right that our government ensures that all people who are
capable of learning, and who are eager to learn, have access to free
education regardless of their mental, physical or psychological
condition, and have equal opportunity to grow and develop their
intelligence for a more secure future ahead of them.

It is only for this reason that the approval of this bill is being
sought.

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ERIC L. OLFWAREZ


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Constitution Hills, Quezon City
SEVENTEENTH (17') CONGRESS

First Regular Session

House ili no, 4488

Introduced by REPRESENTATIVE ERIC L. OLIVAREZ

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“AN ACT ESTABLISHING AT LEAST ONE SPED CENTER FOR
EVERY COMPONENT CITY AND AT LEAST TWO SPED CENTERS
FOR EVERY HIGHLY URBANIZED CITY”

SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the
“Sped Centers Act of 2016”.

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. It shall be the policy of
the State to ensure that Filipino children with special needs shall
have easy and adequate access to special education, with programs
adjusted or tailor-fit to their individual learning abilities.

SECTION 3. Definition of Terms. The following terms as
used in this Act shall be taken to mean, as follows:

Child - a person not more than eighteen
(18) years of age, or over eighteen (18) but is
incapable of self-support due to any mental
and/or physical defect and/or disability.


Special Child - a child who has been
medically determined to require special
attention and specific necessities that other
children do not;

SPED Center - (Special Education
Center); an institution that offers education to
children with special needs. Sped centers are
required to be established under this Act by
any component city and highly urbanized city.

Joint SPED Center - a sped center
established and maintained under this Act by
a group of cities, each of which either having
insufficient income to maintain its own SPED
CENTER, and/or having relatively small
population of special children so as to make it
impractical to establish and operate one sped
center exclusively for its disproportionately few
constituents (i.e. special children) only.

Indigent special child - any special
child belonging to a household with an
aggregate annual income of not more than
P100,000.00, or any special child that is
orphaned and/or not living with his/her
immediate family.

SECTION 4. Establishment of One Sped Center for a
Component City and Two Sped Center for every Highly
Urbanized City. Every component city in the Philippines is hereby
mandated to establish at least one Sped Center to cater to its
respective constituents and every highly urbanized city is hereby
mandated to establish at least two Sped Centers to cater to a higher
population.

SECTION 5. Joint Sped Center. In special circumstances,
instead of establishing separate sped centers, two or more
component cities described in Section 4, each of which either

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having insufficient income to maintain its own sped center, and/or
having relatively small population of special children so as to make
it impractical to establish and operate one center for its
disproportionately few constituents only, with the approval in
writing of the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD), may enter into an agreement to establish and maintain a
joint sped center. Provided, that the component cities under this
section are neighboring cities. Provided further, that the site where
the Sped Center shall be established is the most accessible to all
the constituents of all the neighboring cities under this section.
Provided finally, that the proposal to establish a joint sped center,
along with other requirements required under the Implementing
Rules of this Act, shall first be submitted to and approved by the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

SECTION 6. Administration Committee. The City Mayors
shall appoint an administration committee who shall act as the
governing body of the Sped Centers. Their compensation shall be
subject to the determination of the Sangguniang Panglungsod of the

city.

SECTION 7. Composition of the Administration
Committee. The administration committee shall be composed of
one Chairman and two members whose qualifications and term of
office shall be prescribed by the DSWD.

Site Requirements

SECTION 8. Ocular inspection and Site Visit. Before
selecting or acquiring a site where the sped center shall be erected,
the City Mayors together with the representative of the DSWD shall
conduct an ocular inspection of the site to determine whether it will
best serve the programs of the center and the best interests of the
potential special children who might avail of such free services, and
shall conduct a survey of the community and review of population
requirements in accordance with the rules and regulations to be
prescribed by the DSWD.

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SECTION 9. Eminent Domain. Any private lands, properties,
highways and/or roads may be acquired by the local government
unit concerned for the purpose of constructing the sped center and
all the necessary building or facilities thereof provided that due
compensation shall be made to the owners of the said private lands,
properties, highways and/or roads.

Staffing

SECTION 10. Core Organizational Hierarchy. Each sped
center shall have one principal and shall have as many teachers as
necessary who are trained in special education.

SECTION 11. Appointment of Staff. The Administration
Committee of a sped center shall appoint such staff as the DSWD
will prescribe to facilitate the enrollment of children with special
needs, for the processing of papers and records of students therein
and for the proper and efficient operation of the said center.

SECTION 12. Resident Physician. The Administration
Committee of a Sped Center shall appoint a legally qualified medical
practitioner, preferably with experience in dealing with children
with special needs, as the resident physician of the Sped Center,
and who shall be responsible for the medical, paramedical and
nursing care and services provided to the students therein.

SECTION 13. Other Employees. The Administration
Committee shall hire all other staff and employees whose duties are
deemed necessary and desirable to the operation and maintenance
of the said sped center.

Applicants

SECTION 14. Eligibility. All special children as defined under
this Act shall have the right to enroll in the Sped Center established

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in the city where he or she resides, without having to pay any kind
of fee.

SECTION 15. Admission of Applicants. The Sped Center
shall admit all special children residing in the city where the said
center is established without regard to sex, actual age, income of
the household where he or she belongs and degree of disability.
However, indigent special children, as defined in this Act, may be
extended privileges and/or priorities in the special assistance
programs for Sped Center students e.g. free books, free school
supplies, etc. which the local government or any third person may
provide.

SECTION 16. Non-admission of Applicants. An applicant
may only be denied admission to a Sped Center for compelling
medical reasons. Special children whose health or general well-
being might be jeopardized by having to go to the sped center every
day, or for any other legitimate reason connected thereto, shall not
be allowed to enroll provided that the Sped Center denies the same
only after acquiring a certification from a public hospital and the
DSWD attesting that the special child is unfit to go to the center.

SECTION 17. No Tuition and other Fees Collection
Permitted. It shall be unlawful for any city, or any Administration
Committee, its officers or employees, or any other person to
demand, charge and accept tuition and other fees and any other
payment from any applicant (i.e. the child, his/her parent, guardian
or any person enrolling him or her) as a prerequisite for the child’s
admission in the Sped Center. However, donations may be accepted
provided the same was not obtained through inducement, stealth,
strategy, manipulation or force.

CURRICULUM and PROGRAM

SECTION 18. Standard Curriculum. The Department of
Education (Dep-Ed) shall prescribe a standard curriculum for
special children which shall be based on methods, strategies, and
lessons that would best cater to the special needs of its students.


SECTION 19. Specialized Programs. The Sped Center may
take the initiative to devise its own specialized program in addition
to, but must not be contrary or inconsistent with, the standard
curriculum prescribed by the Department of Education.
Considering that the DepEd cannot encompassingly anticipate
every individual need of a special child, this specialized program
shall be geared to address the unforeseen peculiar needs of
students which the standard program falls short in addressing.

SCHOOL POLICIES

SECTION 20. Applicable Polices. All policies and regulations
being implemented by the Department of Education in all public
schools, in so far as not inconsistent with this Act, shall be
applicable to all Sped Centers.

SECTION 21. Information Campaign. The Department of
Education (Dep-Ed), the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), and all the Local Government Units
concerned shall conduct an extensive information campaign for the
public to know the existence and respective locations of the Sped
Centers.

SECTION 22. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The
Dep-Ed and DSWD in coordination with the Department of Interior
and Local Government shall jointly promulgate the implementing
rules and regulations for the effective and immediate
implementation of this Act.

SECTION 22. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, executive
orders, letters of instructions, rules and regulations or parts
thereof, which are inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed,
amended or modified accordingly.

SECTION 23. Separability Clause. If any provision of this
Act is judicially declared invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining

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provisions of this Act not affected thereby shall continue to be in
full force and effect.

SECTION 24. Effectivity Clause. This act shall take effect
fifteen (15) days following its publication in two (2) newspapers of
general circulation.

APPROVED.