Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
Second Regular Session 
House Bill No. ______ 
Introduced by Representative Camille A. Villar 
AN ACT  
PROVIDING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE, ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE 
EARLY DETECTION AND TIMELY INTERVENTION SERVICES FOR CHILDREN 
WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall 
promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being. 
It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their 
involvement in public and civic affairs.1 
Moreover, the State shall defend the right of children to assistance, including 
proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, 
cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.2  
The recent study of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2022) 
estimates that there are about 1.6 million Filipino children with disabilities.3  
Merriam-Webster define ‘special needs” as “various difficulties (such as a 
physical, emotional, behavioral, or learning disability or impairment) that causes an 
individual to require additional or specialized services or accommodations (such as 
in education or recreation)”.  
In the Philippines, consider the following4: 
1 Section 13, Article II, Declaration of Principles and State Policies, of the 1987 Philippine Constitution 
2 Section 3 (2), Article XV, The Family, of the 1987 Philippine Constitution 
3 Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department, House of Representatives, March 2023 (No. 17), citing Cost of Raising 
Children with Disabilities in the Philippines, UNICEF 2022 
4 Data culled from Philippine Policy Report No.6, Children with Disabilities: Finding the Way to an Inclusive Service Framework, 
July 2018, study funded by the Australian Embassy in Manila, UNICEF, DSWD and the Development Academy of the Philippines 
February 7, 2024
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9897



PhilHealth estimates that one out of seven or around 5.1 million Filipino
children are living with disabilities. Yet there is little information on the
prevalence of disabilities among Filipino children.

Children with disabilities continue to experience barriers to access basic
social services. This is compounded by poverty, lack of data, weak
governance and discriminatory attitudes related to disability in general.

Children with disabilities are less likely to attend school, access medical
services, or have their voices heard in society. Their disabilities also
place them at a higher risk of physical abuse and discrimination, and
often exclude them from receiving proper nutrition or humanitarian
assistance in emergencies.
Through this legislation, a framework is being envisioned and that society 
must adapt its structures and mechanisms to ensure children irrespective of age, 
gender and disability must enjoy the human rights that are inherent in their human 
dignity.  Disability cannot be considered in isolation, having special needs should not 
be a badge for discrimination. 
The proposed legislation also aims to put in place a comprehensive and 
coordinated health policy on children with special needs that will provide the directions 
and interventions that must be undertaken by and among concerned agencies in an 
effective and timely manner.  Everyone must be receptive to and supportive of children 
with special needs. 
In view thereof, the passage of this bill is earnestly sought. 
CAMILLE A. VILLAR 


Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
Second Regular Session 
Introduced by Representative Camille Villar 
AN ACT  
PROVIDING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE, ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE 
EARLY DETECTION AND TIMELY INTERVENTION SERVICES FOR CHILDREN 
WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled. 
Section 1. Short Title. – This Act shall be known as the “Early Detection and 
Intervention Services for Children with Special Needs Act.” 
Section 2. Declaration of Policy. – It is the policy of the State to adopt an 
integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to 
make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at 
affordable cost. 
Section 3. Definition of Terms. - 
A.
Special Needs shall mean a variety of conditions, difficulties and
impairments including but not limited to chronic and terminal illnesses, physical 
impairments, and behavioral, cognitive or psychiatric issues and learning disability 
that causes an individual to require additional or specialized services or 
accommodations such as education or recreation.  A special needs child may have a 
life-threatening condition or they may have severe learning disabilities. 
B.
Children with special needs (CSNs) refer to those persons below
eighteen (18) years of age who are mentally gifted or are fast learners; and those who 
are disabled, impaired and handicapped and in need of special education as well as 
services for rehabilitation. They differ from the average children in mental 
characteristics, sensory abilities, neuromuscular or physical characteristics, social 
attributes, to such an extent that requires the use of modified school practices or 
special education services to develop them to maximum capability. 
They may be classified as follows: 
House Bill No. ______ 
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1.
Gifted children and fast learners are those capable of superior
performance including those with demonstrated achievement or potential
ability in one or more of the following areas: general intellectual ability,
specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking ability,
leadership ability, ability in the performing arts and psychomotor ability, or
those individuals who consistently manifest the following cluster of traits.
above average ability (including intelligence), high creativity (implies the
developmental appreciation of innovative ideas) and high task commitment
(related to a high degree of motivation) and those who by reason thereof,
require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school;
2.
Children with mental retardation intellectual disability are those who have
substantial limitation in present functioning characterized by significant sub-
average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with the related
limitations in two or more of the applicable adaptive skill areas;
communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self- 
direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure and work;
3.
Children with visual impairment are those who are blind or having a low
vision. Persons are blind if they have a visual capacity of 20/200 or less in a
better eye after maximum correction. The low vision persons retain a relatively low
degree of vision and can read only enlarged print or regular print under special
conditions;
4.
Children with hearing impairment are those who are deaf or hard-of- 
hearing. The deaf persons are one whose hearing are non-functional for
ordinary purpose in life. The hard-of-hearing have a defective sense of hearing
that is functional without a hearing aid;
5.
Children with behavior problems are those who cannot adjust to the
socially accepted norms or behavior and, consequently disrupt their academic
progress, in the learning efforts of their classmates and interpersonal relations;
6.
Children with orthopedic/physical handicap are those whose impairment
permanently or temporarily interferes with the normal functions of the
joints, muscles or limbs;
7.
Children with special health problems are those who have health conditions
that tend to keep children out-of-school or those with chronic and/or debilitating
illnesses such as cardiac (heart) diseases, asthma, diabetes, tuberculosis and
other respiratory ailments, carcinoma, epilepsy, malnutrition and others;
8.
Children with learning disabilities are those who, although normal in
sensory, emotional and intellectual abilities, exhibit disorders in perception,
listening, thinking, reading, writing, spelling or arithmetic. They have such
condition as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction,
dyslexia and developmental aphasia;
9.
Children with speech defects are those whose speech differs from the
average so far as to draw unfavorable attention to the manner of speaking
rather than to the thought conveyed, which include communication
disorders such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or


a voice impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance; 
10.
Children with autism are those with developmental disabilities, the onset
of which occurs before thirty (30) months of age which is marked by
disturbance in development, language and relationship with persons,
activities and objects and which may coexist with intellectual disability and
epilepsy. Children afflicted with this disorder have perceptual cognitive
communication and social difficulties which change over time;
11.
Children with multi-handicaps are those with more than one disability
such as the deaf-blind or those diagnosed with autism and intellectual
disability;
12.
Children with Specific Learning Disability - A disorder in one or more of
the basic physiological processes involved in understanding or in using
language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect
ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical
calculations. Such term includes conditions such as perceptual disabilities,
brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental
aphasia;
13.
Children with Traumatic Brain Injury - An acquired injury to the brain
caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional
disability or psychosocial impairment or both, and that adversely affects a
child's educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head
injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition,
language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment,
problem solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial
behavior physical functions, information processing, and speech. The term
does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative or to
brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
C.
Intervention shall mean educational methods and positive behavioral
support strategies designed to improve the condition of a child suffering from 
mental disorder. 
Section 4. Programs for Children with Special Needs. The Department of 
Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH) shall develop a program 
providing for comprehensive accessible and affordable early detection and timely 
intervention services for children with special needs. The objectives of this program 
include, but not limited to, the following: 
a. To increase awareness, reduce barriers to screening and diagnosis, promote
evidence-based interventions for children with special needs or other
developmental disabilities;
b. To build a qualified and adequately trained workforce prepared to provide
special needs services for children and their families;


c. To conduct a comprehensive, multi-faceted public awareness campaign to
educate families, the general public, and other key audiences about the benefits
of children's social and emotional development, and how to access services; and
d. To create a quality-driven children's special needs system with shared
accountability among agencies and programs that conducts ongoing needs
assessments, uses outcome indicators and benchmarks to measure progress, and
implements quality data tracking and reporting system.
Section 5.   Role of Local Government Units. All local government units shall
endeavor to establish special needs center offering early intervention and transition 
programs and shall provide programs and services that will prepare special needs 
children on activities in mainstream society.  
Section 6. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The DepEd and DOH in 
coordination with the Department of Interior and Local Government and in 
consultation with relevant private sector practitioners and representatives of the 
academic community shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to carry out 
the provisions of this Act. 
Section 7.   Separability Clause. – If any provision or part hereof is held invalid 
or unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or the provision not otherwise affected 
shall remain valid and subsisting. 
Section 7. Repealing Clause. – Any law, presidential decree or issuance, 
executive order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary 
to, or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or 
amended accordingly. 
Section 8. Effectivity Clause. – This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
complete publication in at least two (2) national newspapers of general circulation, 
whichever comes earlier. 
Approved,