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GRANTS of €400 a head will be given to parents of special educational needs pupils in Spain, and post-16 students living away from home will receive an extra €900 a year towards living costs, according to the national government.
A total of €2 billion has been set aside in the 2023 State budget to help families cope with the effects of inflation in relation to their children's education, and the additional payments announced will apply from the start of the next academic year.
Education minister Pilar Alegría stresses that the grants are not means-tested, and are not conditioned upon achieving minimum grades at school or college.
She estimates around 241,000 special educational needs (SEN) pupils will be entitled to the one-off €400, which is completely compatible with any other grants they may be eligible for.
This is approximately 31% of the three-quarters of million SEN pupils in Spain who are currently registered as needing additional schooling support, and who include children with disabilities, language difficulties, or with behavioural disorders caused by specific medical conditions such as ADHD or because of being on the autism spectrum.
The funds will be paid to families for each pupil, whether they attend a special school or are in the mainstream educational system, but the children must have been formally accredited as a SEN student 'via the usual process', Pilar Alegría's department says.
Parents should not have to pay for additional tuition within main school hours, though, as Spanish law dictates that the necessary support for all SEN pupils must be available in the public system.
The application process for the €400 payments is expected to start in March 2023.
Post-16 students get additional living cost grants
Also, from the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, sixth-formers, university students, or those on FP or vocational qualification courses will be entitled to €2,500 for accommodation expenses, rather than the present €1,600.
This is only for post-16 students who have to live away from the family home for their courses, having opted to attend a college or university in another province or region, or where their habitual residence is too far to commute daily.
Effectively, it will be payable to any student living outside a major city, its suburbs or satellite towns, and especially young people in remote, rural areas of declining population.
Known colloquially as 'Empty Spain', or España Vaciada, small villages deep in the countryside are at risk of disappearance due to their inconvenience as a residence for younger, working-aged and childbearing-aged adults – a long commute from the nearest towns for schools and jobs.
Government strategies and funding are working on improving internet and mobile phone coverage in these parts, so as to encourage digital nomads and home-workers, but Pilar Alegría stresses that students whose families live in these very rural environments are forced to live independently when they go to college and, even if they travel home for the weekends, cover longer distances at greater cost.
“This means additional costs for [students from rural backgrounds] and creates a factor of inequality between cities and countryside areas,” she says.
Increasing sums available for college cost-of-living grants is aimed at helping ease this geographical inequality.
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