Section 3Sec./Art. 3

Objectives. -This Act shall pursue to the following objectives:

(a) To provide learners with disabilities free and appropriate public early and basic education and support and related services based on their needs, and in preparation for independent living and community life;

(b) To provide learners with disabilities access to the general education system through formal school systems, including the implementation of alternative delivery modes, in accordance with the "United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", "UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education", "The Incheon Strategy to Make the Rights Real for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific", Republic Act No. 11510 or the "Alternative Learning System Act", and other specific rights and benefits under existing laws;

(c) To establish and maintain Inclusive Learning Resource Centers of Learners with Disabilities in support of their inclusion in the general education system, particularly to the formal school system as provided in the Individualized Education Plan;

(d) To ensure that learners with disabilities develop their full potential toward self-sufficiency and become fully participative members of society;

(e) To create significant and positive changes in community orientation towards disability to ensure that learners with disabilities are understood, appreciated, and respected for their differences by the members of their communities and by society in general;

(f) To further develop a system for identification, referral, and intervention for learners with disabilities;

(g) To identify, through a Child Find System, learners with disabilities ages three (3) to twenty-four (24), and infants and toddlers under the age of three (3), in compliance with Republic Act No. 10410, otherwise known as the "Early Years Act (EYA) of 2013";

(h) To institutionalize the development, implementation, and review of the Individualized Education Plan for the quality education of learners with disabilities;

(i) To provide parents or guardians of learners with disabilities with information and opportunities to actively participate in the determination of educational placement options and programs to enable them to make informed choices and decisions;

(j) To enable and empower all teachers, including those with disabilities, parents, guardians, and family members by training and equipping them with capabilities for the detection, referral or introduction of interventions with regard to disorders, disabilities, and abilities of the learners;

(k) To train and equip all teachers, including child development teachers and workers, principals, administrators, non-teaching staff of the school, sign language interpreters, parents, guardians, and care providers as partners in the care, development, education, and advancement of learners with disabilities;

(l) To increase school retention and cohort survival of learners with disabilities; and

(m) To establish an effective consultative mechanism that will actively involve learners with disabilities, when appropriate, and their representative organizations in the implementation of this Act and in resolving issues relating to it.