The general objective of this study was to analyze the coherence between the legal purpose of schooling of students with intellectual disability and the meanings families attribute to schooling in ordinary classroom in regular school. The study can be described as analytical field research, using document referencing. The population consisted of 149 members of families of students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in 16 municipal schools in the city of Uberlândia. A sample of 24 members of such families answered questions during a semi-structured interview. The main results show that: public policies for this area are oriented by neoliberal policies; regarding the meaning and expectancies of the parents as to the schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities, aspects such as learning and development, literacy and socialization are among the main reasons their children attend classes; and the majority do not desire specific terminality for their children, because they believe that this will lead to discrimination. We conclude that, despite advances, the schooling of the mentally impaired has to be rethought and that specific terminality ought to be fully discussed. As policy in Brazil, it does not answer suitably to families’ expectations, with the possibility of hampering the course of these students’ schooling.
Special Education; Educational Policy; Intellectual Disabilities; Terminal Studies