Moldavian and Ukrainian societies are deconstructing traditional (inherited) welfare institutions, being under extremely complicated transformative challenges, struggling with economical burdens, polarization and poverty affection.  Deconstruction of the “old” system of special education towards inclusion is one challenge. A process of constituting “new” systems of education, making attempts to embed special education in mainstream education, is acknowledging deinstitutionalization as an inevitable stage of this process. When poverty affects this process, different types of resistance from families of children with disabilities appear. Historically and ideologically the Soviet system of special education was constructed based upon the earliest social projects where the state took full responsibility for children with special needs, satisfying their basic needs, accommodating them in special institutions. It means that families of children with disabilities were treated by the state as those who need permanent social-economical support. Critically reflecting upon the inherited system of special education it is evident that several generations of children grown out of becoming parents themselves, accepted this system as extra resources. In the current situation of market liberalization and economical polarization, these parents, protecting their children from family economic burdens are turning to the “old” system, resisting against a process of inclusion. They “intentionally put” their children in these special education institutions, because of the importance of the extra resources of special educational institutions for their children. These families are risking of reproducing a family poverty circle. The other negative effect of this process is a rather big number of special needs children who have not reached mainstream inclusive schools because of the lack of family resources (when special institutions get closed). My research is focusing on what ways could be worked out to overcome traditional assistance of special education (closed institutions) for children with special needs as a system which reproduces unfreedoms in poverty and disability.

What transformative models of special education could be developed out of traditional forms?

How to transform special education resources in mainstream education, keeping care of those children with special needs, whose families have stable economical burdens?