What are our duties to disabled pupils under the Equality Act?

Schools must not discriminate against, harass or victimise disabled pupils; must make reasonable adjustments (including auxiliary aids) to prevent substantial disadvantage; and must keep a written accessibility plan.

The four duties

These duties sit in the Equality Act 2010 and apply to every school in England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland has its own law). The responsible body - the governing board or proprietor - is on the hook for four things:

• Do not discriminate, harass or victimise. You must not treat a disabled pupil less favourably in admissions, in how you teach, in access to any benefit, facility or service, or in exclusions (Equality Act 2010, s.85).
• Make reasonable adjustments. Change a policy or practice, and supply auxiliary aids or services, where a disabled pupil would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage (s.20).
• Keep an accessibility plan. Prepare, publish and review a written plan to improve disabled pupils' access to the curriculum, the physical environment and information (Schedule 10).
• Meet the public sector equality duty. Have due regard to eliminating discrimination and advancing equality, and publish your equality information and objectives (s.149).

Within the first duty, the law names six forms of unlawful disability discrimination you must avoid: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from disability (s.15), failure to make reasonable adjustments, harassment and victimisation. Discrimination arising from disability is the one schools trip over - punishing behaviour that is a consequence of the disability, when you knew or ought to have known the pupil was disabled.

The qualifier the top results miss

The duty does not wait for a label. A pupil is "disabled" under the Equality Act if they have a physical or mental impairment with a substantial, long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities (s.6). That is a legal test, not a medical one: it needs no formal diagnosis, no EHCP and no SEN Support status. Assuming the duty only applies to pupils with a plan or a named condition is the most common school-side error.

The reasonable-adjustments duty is also anticipatory and continuing. You must plan ahead for disabled pupils generally - not sit tight until one pupil asks - and you cannot charge pupils or parents for an adjustment. And Equality Act duties run alongside, and independently of, the Children and Families Act 2014 SEND duties: a child can be disabled but not have SEN, have SEN but not be disabled, and many are both. A single pupil can engage your SEND duties and your disability duties at the same time.

What the 2026 reforms change (nothing here)

The 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose Individual Support Plans and would narrow EHCPs to the most complex needs by 2035, with no changes before September 2030. Those reforms reshape the SEND framework. They leave these Equality Act disability duties in force, unchanged. Plan against the law as it stands.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.