Decree 12,686/2025 in practice: what changes for schools and teachers

On 20 October 2025, Brazil's federal government published Decreto nº 12.686/2025, creating the National Inclusive Special Education Policy (PNEEI) and the National Inclusive Special Education Network. The text fully revokes Decreto nº 7.611/2011, the rule that had governed specialized educational support (AEE, in Brazil) for more than a decade.

Two months later, in December 2025, Decreto nº 12.773/2025 changed a significant part of the original wording, widening the requirements and creating even more things to watch for the people on the front line: schools, pedagogical coordinators and teachers.

This article brings together, in an organized way, what is already in force, what changed in the December revision and what still needs attention from school leaders.

Why this decree matters

Special education in Brazil was already growing steadily before the new decree. Between 2013 and 2023, enrollment of students served by special education jumped from 843,000 to 1.77 million, and their presence in mainstream classrooms rose from 76.9% to 91.3%. Access moved forward, but the challenge that remains is the quality of learning, not enrollment alone.

That is exactly the spirit of Decree 12,686/2025: shifting the discussion from "being in school" to "learning in school", replacing a more reactive model with structured pedagogical planning.

What the decree creates

1. National Inclusive Special Education Policy (PNEEI) Aimed at students with disabilities, with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with giftedness, with the goal of guaranteeing access, retention, participation and learning in mainstream classes and schools, free of discrimination and with equal opportunity.

2. National Inclusive Special Education Network A structure that connects the federal government, states and municipalities to support putting the policy in place, including funding transfers (through the Programa Dinheiro Direto na Escola and the Plano de Ações Articuladas), training grants and guidelines for school leaders and teachers.

3. The case study as the starting point One of the genuinely new instruments the decree brings. Before any individualized plan is written, the school has to carry out a case study of the student, an approach that moves the assessment away from a purely clinical lens toward a pedagogical one.

PEI and PAEE: what changed with Decree 12,773/2025

This is probably the biggest source of confusion among school leaders right now, and it is worth spelling out:

• In the original wording (October 2025), article 12 made only the PAEE (Plano de Atendimento Educacional Especializado, the specialized support plan) mandatory as the individualized document derived from the case study.
• With the December 2025 change (Decreto nº 12.773), the same article started requiring both the PAEE and the PEI (Plano Educacional Individualizado, Brazil's individualized education plan) as mandatory documents, individualized and continuously updated, both derived from the case study.

In practice, this means schools that were producing only one of the two documents now need to make both part of the institution's pedagogical project. Both have to guide:

• the work in the mainstream classroom;
• the work done within specialized educational support (AEE);
• collaborative activities inside the school;
• coordination across sectors (health, social services and others).

The decree also determines that the school must issue a pedagogical opinion authorizing the use of portable digital devices as assistive technology for communication, learning or socializing, a practical detail many schools have not yet put in writing.

Training requirements for staff

The decree sets minimum training levels that bear directly on hiring and on preparing teams:

• AEE teachers: a degree in pedagogy or a teaching qualification, plus a specialization of at least 360 hours in special education.
• School support staff: completed secondary education, plus 180 hours of additional training focused on inclusion.

Beyond initial qualification, the text reinforces that continuing professional development is mandatory, which opens room for school systems to plan recurring training rather than one-off sessions.

What the decree reinforces as principle, not just as rule

It is worth noting that the decree does not stop at paperwork. It sets principles that should guide how any future doubt is read:

• equal opportunity and the fight against ableism;
• specialized support must complement, never replace, schooling in the mainstream classroom;
• participation of families and students in democratic school governance;
• technical and financial support from government to specialized non-profit private institutions (such as the APAEs).

The decree is also aligned with recent decisions of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, which reaffirmed that inclusive education is constitutional and that the State has a duty to guarantee that students with disabilities can attend mainstream schools with the support they need, which reinforces that blanket exclusion criteria for special classes have no legal footing.

A landscape still in transition

School leaders and teachers should be clear on one point: publishing the decree mobilized professionals, associations and members of congress, which led the Ministry of Education to state publicly that it will revise specific passages of the text. In other words, Brazil is in a period of regulatory transition: what is already in force has to be complied with, but further adjustments are expected.

That reinforces how important it is for schools to adopt pedagogical management processes and tools flexible enough to keep up with changes in the rules, instead of relying on manual controls and spreadsheets that have to be rebuilt with every update.

What schools and school systems should do now

1. Map where they stand today: does the school already produce the PEI and the PAEE separately and keep both up to date, or only one of them?
2. Make the case study a formal step that comes before any individualized plan, not a formality completed afterwards.
3. Check the qualifications of the AEE team and of school support staff against the minimum hours required.
4. Issue the pedagogical opinions needed for assistive technology, where that applies.
5. Follow the revisions announced by the Ministry of Education, since the text may still be adjusted.
6. Keep pedagogical documentation (case study, PEI, PAEE, training records) in one place, avoiding records scattered between teachers, coordinators and the AEE team.

That last point tends to be the real bottleneck: it is not that pedagogical teams lack the will, it is how hard it is to keep everything organized, current and within reach of whoever needs to make a decision, whether that is a teacher, a coordinator or a family.

References

• Presidência da República. Decreto nº 12.686, de 20 de outubro de 2025. Diário Oficial da União, 21/10/2025.
• Presidência da República. Decreto nº 12.773, de 8 de dezembro de 2025 (amends Decreto nº 12.686/2025).
• Câmara dos Deputados, consolidated text of Decreto nº 12.686/2025.
• ABMES, Associação Brasileira de Mantenedoras de Ensino Superior. Legislative record for Decreto nº 12.686/2025.
• Semesp, Sindicato das Entidades Mantenedoras de Estabelecimentos de Ensino Superior. Note on Decreto nº 12.686/2025.
• IEAC blog, "O novo Decreto da Educação Especial (12.686/2025): o que muda, o que será revisado".
• Educamundo blog, "Decreto nº 12.686/2025: Entenda a Nova Política de Inclusão".