Government Agencies and Official Procedures
Parents and professionals, here are explanations and links to official French government agencies and procedures that SPRINT and its members think will be of interest to you.
Table of contents :
the MDPH, including the CDAPH
la CAF, the Family Allowance Fund
the PPS, the Personalized Schooling Project
the PAP, the Personalized Accompanying Plan
the FINESS, The National File of Health and Social Institutions
La M.D.P.H.
The Departmental House for People with Disabilities or MDPH is a public service establishment which welcomes, informs, guides and accompanies people with disabilities, as well as raising the awareness of all citizens towards disability. The MDPHs combine all the skills involved today in supporting people with disabilities and their families. It can also organize coordination actions with other health and medico-social systems concerning the person involved. Run by the General Council, they associate: the General Council, the State services, the social protection organizations (CAF, Caisse d'Allocations Maladie), and representatives of associations for people with disabilities. They constitute a local network of access to all the rights, benefits and aids. You must apply to the MDPH to get benefits from the CAF and any other aid that the State can provide.
If you need to contact the MDPH and create your file with them to get your benefits, check out our explanation page on how to and what to expect when contacting the MDPH.
Inside the MDPH, the CDAPH, the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of People with Disabilities, decides on the orientation of persons with disabilities (child or adult) and the allocation of all benefits and identification (disability card, priority parking) and in particular all disability compensation benefits paid by the General Council. The CDAPH is independent in its choices and decisions.
What the MDPH/CDAPH can do for you :
decide on the orientation of the disabled person and measures to ensure his or her academic or professional and social integration;
designate the establishments or services that meet the needs of the child / adolescent or assist in the rehabilitation, education, reclassification and reception of the handicapped adult, and decide on the accompaniment of older disabled persons sixty years housed in specialized reception facilities;
allow the allocation, for the child or young person, of the education allowance for the handicapped child and, possibly, of his/her supplement;
allow the allocation of the disability card (CIN);
allow the allocation of the allowance for adults with disabilities (AAH) as well as the disability compensation benefit (PCH);
recognize the status of disabled worker (RQTH).
Defenseur des Droits
https://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr
The Defender of Rights is an independent state institution. Created in 2011 and registered in the Constitution, it was entrusted with two missions: to defend people whose rights are not respected, and to allow equality for all in their access to their rights.
Any individual or any legal entity (a company, an association, etc.) can seize it directly and free of charge when: he thinks he is discriminated against; he notes that a representative of law and order (police, gendarmerie, customs ...) or private (a security officer ...) did not respect the rules of good behavior; he has difficulties in its relations with a public service (Family Allowance Fund, Employment Center, retirement ...); he considers that the rights of a child are not respected.
The Defender of Rights was born from the meeting of four institutions: the Mediator of the Republic, the Children's Defender, the High Authority against Discrimination and Equality (HALDE) and the National Commission for Safety Deontology (NSDC).
La CAF
The Family Allowance Fund (CAF or Caf) is a local representative of the National Family Allowances Fund (CNAF), which forms the family branch of the French Social Security. Each CAF is a body governed by private law with territorial jurisdiction responsible for paying individuals financial assistance of a family or social nature, under conditions determined by law, called legal benefits. Each CAF also ensures, at a local level, an essentially collective social action through technical assistance and subsidies to local social actors (town halls, nurseries, MJC, leisure centers, etc.).
CAF's missions focus on four main areas: early childhood, childhood and youth, housing and living environment, and solidarity and insertion.
Examples of allowances provided by the CAF : the education allowance for handicapped children (AEEH) is an allowance intended to offset the costs incurred by any person who has a dependent child or young person with a disability; the allowance for adults with disabilities (AAH) is a social benefit paid to people with a disability or a chronic or disabling disease, and is a social minimum whose payment is subject to medical conditions examined by the CDAPH and administrative conditions studied by the paying agencies.
To benefit from these allowances, you must apply to the MDPH first : see this explanation page.
The P.P.S.
The P.P.S, the Personalized Schooling Project, is a document that ensures the overall coherence of the school career of the handicapped student. It serves to define the special needs of a child with a disability during his schooling. It is made for children who are given the “reconnaissance de handicap” by the MDPH, by demand of the family or by notification of the school.
The implementation of the PPS is done under the responsibility of the referent teacher, who gathers a team to follow the schooling. The PPS defines the modes of the schooling by specifying, if necessary:
the quality and nature of the necessary support, in particular therapeutic or reeducational interventions;
the use of individual human assistance/accompaniment;
the use of appropriate teaching material;
the dispensation of one or more lessons.
The P.P.S. is reviewed at least once a year. It follows the student throughout his schooling and is required in all institutions (school, health and medico-social).
La P.A.P.
The PAP, Personalized Accompanying Plan, is document resembling the P.P.S. which allows measures to be implemented to help the integration of a child with learning difficulties in school, but which is only pedagogical and not medical. It is created within the school and does not need any external implication. It is a simplificative measure, making it possible to decide and implement measures to adjust the schooling of a pupil without having to consult the MDPH.
The PAP is intended for students who are experiencing long-lasting academic difficulties resulting from one or more learning disabilities, but without needing the use of external aids which add an extra cost to the childs schooling or breaking the laws of his scolarity. For example, needing an AVS or a computer to work on, or being excused from certain lessons with a “temps partiel” are reasons to need a P.P.S. But measures which can be done by the school/teachers themselves, such as bigger fonts on texts, seating close to the board, perfering oral exams to written, adapting P.E. to their physical level, using memory cards, etc, can be decided upon using a P.A.P.
The PAP aims to prevent a student's academic difficulties by adjusting their schooling without disrupting their daily life. It is set up under the responsibility of the school principal or school head, after consulting the school doctor.
Here is a model example of how the PAP is drafted from pre-school through to high-school, in French.
La FINESS
The National File of Health and Social Institutions, usually called FINESS or FINESS directory, has been developed and is managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights. This file constitutes, at a national level, the reference in terms of inventory of the structures and equipment of health, medico-social, social and vocational training institutions in these sectors. It has four functions : identification and reference; information; management and planning support; statistics.
It can be used to look for an institution or association adapted to a persons needs and close to home; to be reassured about the legitimacy of a service or structure claiming to be a "health and social institution"; to be reassured about the legitimacy of these establishments to carry out a "health or social actions" or social action.
Missions and activities of staff responsible for supporting students with disabilities
Here is a Google Translated version of the french goverment page explaining the circular. It lays down the rules and regulations that staff in primary and secondary education responsible for supporting students with disabilities must follow. It explains what support the students should recieve during their daily actions, including comfort, safety, essential acts, mobility, accessing leaning activities, and social life. It also details the contracts and training of the different types of workers recruited by public schools.
For your information, in France, Article L. 111-1 of the education code affirms that the public education service ensures the inclusion of all children in school without any distinction. It thus devotes a new approach: whatever the particular needs of the pupil, it is up to the school to ensure that the environment is adapted to his schooling.
French Guide on schooling children with special needs in France
Finally, here is a complete French guide for schooling children and adolescents with physical and/or learning disabilities written and published by the government, specifically the Ministry of National Education and Youth. It is an exhaustive paper with definitions, laws and explanations of all the possibilities open to your child.
It was published in 2018 but is still very much up-to-date with how France functions at the moment.