# Education Act 1996, Section 316: Duty to educate children with special educational needs in mainstream schools

Extent: E+W

(1) This section applies to a child with special educational needs who should be educated in a school.
(2) If no statement is maintained under section 324 for the child, he must be educated in a mainstream school.
(3) If a statement is maintained under section 324 for the child, he must be educated in a mainstream school unless that is incompatible with—
(a) the wishes of his parent, or
(b) the provision of efficient education for other children.
(4) In this section and section 316A “mainstream school” means any school other than—
(a) a special school, or
(b) an independent school which is not—
(i) a city technology college,
(ii) a city college for the technology of the arts, or
(iii) an Academy.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/316 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/education-act-1996/section-316
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.