[WASHINGTON, D.C. — 24 JANUARY 2025] — Coinciding with the International Day of Education, Special Olympics today issued an urgent call to action, rallying governments, civil society, and international organizations around the globe to commit to robust financing that will transform education systems for learners of all abilities. In the organization’s second annual letter on the Global State of Inclusion in Education, Special Olympics Chairman Dr. Timothy Shriver highlighted both progress and persistent barriers in creating truly inclusive education systems.
In this letter, Dr. Shriver examines three key developments over the past year:
- Governments and international organizations increasingly recognize that inclusion is a fundamental driver of systemic change, not just a “nice-to-have” component of education reform. However, insufficient financing for inclusive practices continues to be the most significant barrier to genuine inclusion, even when finding that for each additional year of completed school, a learner with disabilities can yield a wage return up to 25%. For example, in Rwanda, adults with disabilities who had completed at least some primary school had up to 56% higher wage returns.
- The emerging presence of AI presents both opportunities and challenges for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Without urgent, deliberate action by technology companies to promote inclusive development, the ‘AI revolution’ could only deepen existing inequities. Even more troubling, only one-third of educators believe that AI developers are currently considering the needs of students with IDD.
- Prioritizing capacity development for educators emerged as a crucial next step to strengthening inclusion. Teachers need more training on evidence-based inclusive practices to ensure more inclusive classrooms and school communities. Governments and education systems lack frameworks that clearly define inclusion. This prevents inclusive practices from being embedded in teaching, classroom practices, and professional development training for educators.
“We found that governments are 'talking the talk' on policy, but not yet 'walking the walk' by financing the kind of social infrastructure that creates inclusive attitudes and mindsets. In many cases, countries have inclusive education policies that specifically target children with disabilities while continuing to rely on segregated systems,” writes Dr. Shriver. “Moving beyond incremental steps in transforming education systems will require urgent, coordinated action. Achieving genuine inclusion requires genuine commitment from the highest levels of policymaking, underpinned by bold leadership and robust financing.”
As the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) looms closer, stark disparities in education still persist. Alarmingly, UNESCO estimates that 250 million children and youth remain out of school — a figure that has risen by six million since 2021. A rapidly changing global landscape further exacerbates these challenges. Economic downturns, climate change, global health crises, conflict, migration and fragility are increasingly disruptive forces, and children with disabilities—already the most marginalized group—bear the consequences at disproportionately high rates. These children and other vulnerable populations are at serious risk of being prevented from fulfilling their right to quality, equitable education. Moreover, as education slips down the list of global priorities, the decades-long momentum for inclusive education risks stalling.
In the letter, Special Olympics also announced a major commitment to engage with leading technology companies throughout 2025 to ensure that emerging educational tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and assistive technologies, are developed with consideration toward the needs and perspectives of those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
On this, Dr. Shriver stated: “Without deliberate action to make AI inclusive, students with IDD—3% of the global population—could be left behind. Special Olympics commits to working with AI companies to better understand how they are designing for diverse learners and to galvanize a greater focus on and investment in technology that is accessible to the IDD community.”
This year’s letter also calls attention to laudable progress made in promoting inclusive practices in Chad, China, Cambodia, Malawi, The Maldives, Nepal, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.
“Progress in these countries demonstrates that—where there is sufficient government support—the power of sport can be harnessed for social inclusion,” says Special Olympics CEO Mary Davis. “And we at Special Olympics know that inclusion works. Sport, integrated into education, is a truly transformative tool, with the power to change hearts, minds and behaviors. At scale, sports and other inclusive practices become positive disruptors that encourage both social and economic development.”
The Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® program leverages sports competitions, clubs, and student organizations to catalyze inclusion in schools and communities. This model creates opportunities for young people with and without IDD to learn from one another by building friendships that bridge differences. Research demonstrates that all students benefit from this inclusive model, with measurable results for students both with and without IDD—from an improved sense of community to better reading and math scores.
This follows the organization’s first annual letter on the Global State of Inclusion in Education, released in early 2024, which found that countries around the globe were falling short of their commitments to inclusion. In 2023, the organization called on governments to dedicate a minimum of three percent of their national education budgets to increase social inclusion for students with IDD. That same year, Special Olympics also announced the formation of the Global Coalition for Inclusion, a pioneering multilateral effort, comprising governments, industry, philanthropy and the development community, to increase inclusive practices in education and sport, and create more inclusive schools and communities.
Read the full letter here.
Read last year’s letter here.