Italy advances inclusive education with revised framework for DSA, BES, and PDP

Italy is strengthening its support for pupils with specific learning disorders and special needs through updated frameworks, ensuring tailored teaching strategies and increased collaboration between schools and families.

At school, families often encounter three acronyms that can seem opaque at first glance: DSA, BES and PDP. In practice, they are part of the framework schools use to make learning more accessible and to adapt teaching to a pupil’s needs. The core idea, as explained by NapoliToday and reinforced by specialist education resources, is straightforward: children should be given the conditions that allow them to learn in the most suitable way possible.

DSA stands for “disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento”, or specific learning disorders. The category includes dyslexia, which affects reading; dysorthography, which concerns spelling accuracy; dysgraphia, which relates to the physical and visual aspects of writing; and dyscalculia, which affects number work and calculation. Crucially, a diagnosis of DSA does not imply lower intellectual ability. A pupil may be highly capable in reasoning, imagination and understanding while still facing specific barriers in reading, writing or maths.

In Italy, pupils with DSA are protected by Law 170 of 2010, which recognises their right to teaching tailored to their individual profile. That can include compensatory tools, such as technology or other aids that help offset a difficulty, alongside assessment methods that take the pupil’s needs into account. The point, according to education specialists, is not to lower expectations but to remove unnecessary obstacles so that progress can be measured fairly.

BES, by contrast, is a broader category. It stands for “bisogni educativi speciali”, or special educational needs, and can cover pupils with disabilities, specific developmental disorders, including DSA, and situations of social, linguistic or cultural disadvantage. As OrizzonteScuola and other education services note, a child does not always need a medical certificate to fall within this framework. Schools can identify a special educational need based on the pupil’s circumstances and learning history, then decide which teaching strategies are most appropriate.

The practical tool that turns these principles into action is the PDP, or personalised learning plan. This document sets out the methods, supports and, where needed, dispensations that a school will use with a pupil who has particular educational needs. It may detail the compensatory tools to be used, the adjustments to assessment, the teaching strategies recommended and the criteria for evaluation. Schools draft the plan with the involvement of teachers and, importantly, the family. Guidance published by Italian schools and specialist sites also stresses that the PDP should not be treated as fixed: it needs to be reviewed and updated as the pupil’s needs evolve.

For parents, the first step is usually administrative and practical at once: gather the necessary documentation, share it with the school and keep communication open. Where there is a DSA diagnosis, a copy of the medical report should be provided to the school so that support can be organised properly. From there, the aim is collaboration rather than bureaucracy. Services supporting pupils with DSA and BES repeatedly stress the same point: the most effective interventions are those that help a child build confidence, independence and a learning routine that matches their profile.