SPECIALIZED EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT (AEE) AND THE NATIONAL POLICY ON INCLUSIVE SPECIAL EDUCATION: A NORMATIVE ANALYSIS OF MEC ORDINANCE NO. 421/2026

Abstract

Ordinance MEC No. 421, of May 15, 2026, regulates Decree No. 12,686, of October 20, 2025, and governs the National Inclusive Special Education Policy (PNEEI) and the National Inclusive Special Education Network (Reneei), consolidating a new regulatory framework for special education in Brazil. This article analyzes, from a legal-pedagogical perspective, the operational guidelines established by the Ordinance, with emphasis on Specialized Educational Assistance (AEE). This is qualitative documentary research, whose corpus comprises the full text of the Ordinance, the decree that underlies it, and related legislation, articulated with academic literature on AEE and school support professionals. The analysis shows that the Ordinance consolidates relevant advances — the prohibition of requiring a medical report for enrollment and provision of AEE, the extension of services to early childhood, the requirement of individualized pedagogical documents, and a new federative governance structure for continuing education. At the same time, implementation challenges already known from the literature emerge, such as the historical precariousness of school support professionals' work and the still-long deadlines for school systems to adapt. It is concluded that the effectiveness of the new policy depends less on the regulatory text itself and more on the concrete conditions of its execution within education systems.