Gyeongbuk Office of Education to Establish Special Education Center in Yeongcheon by 2030...Career Support for 6,500 Special Education Students

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education (Superintendent Im Jong-sik) announced on February 4 that it is pushing ahead with the establishment of the tentatively named Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education Special Education Center in order to enhance the continuity and accessibility of support for students eligible for special education, strengthen teacher expertise, and systematically provide customized career and vocational experience programs for students.

The number of students eligible for special education in the Gyeongbuk region has shown a continuous upward trend over the past six years, increasing from 5,128 in 2020 to 6,560 as of April 1, 2025.

Gyeongbuk Office of Education Special Education Center (bird's-eye view)

Along with this, the diversification and increasing severity of disability types, as well as growing demand for diagnosis, assessment, and related services, have led to persistent calls in schools for the establishment of a more professional and fine-tuned support system.

However, special education support is currently often provided in a fragmented manner by institution and by program. As a result, parents and students bear a heavy burden in having to travel between different regions to find the services they need, and there has been a structural limitation that regional gaps in accessibility may arise.

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education believes that it is necessary to build a wide-area hub for special education that can resolve this imbalance between supply and demand and strengthen linkages between school support centers and local institutions.

In particular, an online survey showed that 93% of teachers and 99.2% of parents responded positively regarding the need to establish a special education center, indicating that there is sufficient consensus among education service users on the need for integrated on-site support and expansion of professional infrastructure.

The Ministry of Education's 6th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Special Education sets as a main direction the enhancement of special education support centers in order to expand school-community linkages, as well as the advancement of support functions such as diagnosis, assessment, placement, itinerant education consulting, and the expansion of professional personnel. Strengthening the support system for inclusive education, linking with medical and welfare services, and expanding transition (career and vocational) support are also included as key tasks.

In line with the 6th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Special Education, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education has set goals to specialize and advance the functions of support centers, to build a community-based linkage system, and to perform hub functions at the central and metropolitan levels. AI- and edutech-based customized teaching and learning support, strengthening training systems for special education teachers, and expanding the dissemination of platforms and content are also presented as major initiatives.

The current initiative to establish the Special Education Center is a project that is aligned with these national and provincial education office plans, and is significant in that it will expand linkages for step-by-step support from early detection to diagnosis and assessment, educational support, and transition (career) in a single integrated space.

The Special Education Center will be built on the site of the former Cheonggyeong Elementary School in Gogeong-myeon, Yeongcheon-si, with the project scheduled to run from April 2025 to February 2030, and with the goal of opening in March 2030.

The facility is planned as a four-story above-ground building with a total floor area of 4,974 square meters, and will be developed as a complex educational facility encompassing training, experience, diagnosis, and support functions.

The implementation procedure will proceed in stages, beginning with architectural planning (space programming, operation planning, and project cost estimation), followed by fiscal investment review, design competition and basic and detailed design, contracting and construction preparation, construction (including demolition), completion, and opening.

In this process, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education plans to ensure public interest and feasibility, while comprehensively reflecting a barrier-free environment and user-centered spatial design.

The Special Education Center aims to establish a one-stop special education support system that links early support for infants and young children, diagnosis and assessment, teaching and learning support and teacher training, inclusive education support, transition (career and vocational) support, and the operation of experience programs.

Through a wide-area hub and base-type support model, it is expected to provide practical support that can be tangibly felt in schools.

Key planned facilities include a future education room, a culture and arts experience room, an open cafe-style library, a behavior observation and analysis room, a practical training room, an audiovisual room, a physical activity room, and a barrier-free playground. These will be designed to simultaneously support student-customized experiences and training, teacher training, and on-site school consulting.

In addition, by providing AI- and edutech-based customized teaching and learning support, immersive content, improvements to inclusive classroom environments, teacher competency-building training, and a systematic framework for transition education (career, vocational training, and employment), the office plans to spread a community-based special education support model.

Under its policy direction of a Great Transformation of Educational Spaces, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education views educational infrastructure not merely as a vessel for learning, but as a core asset that enhances regional competitiveness and residential conditions, and is continuously advancing its educational facility infrastructure.

From this perspective, the establishment of the Special Education Center is being pursued as a mid- to long-term task to provide a world-standard educational environment in the field of special education and to build a foundation for supporting student growth.

The Special Education Center, as an open educational space that links education, welfare, and culture, is expected to contribute to improving perceptions of disability and spreading an inclusive culture through programs in which not only students with disabilities and their families and school staff, but also the local community, participate together.

Im Jong-sik, Superintendent of the Gyeongbuk Office of Education, said, "The Special Education Center will serve as a wide-area base to realize a one-stop support system that connects early support for infants and young children, diagnosis and assessment, on-site support and teacher training, and transition (career and vocational) support in one place," adding, "We will work to reduce regional gaps in service accessibility and expand special education support that students, families, and schools can truly feel, based on AI- and edutech-based customized support and a barrier-free environment."