A/HRC/43/41/Add.3 facilitate and promote the participation of women and men with disabilities in holding public office. 2. Participation in decision-making processes 39. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to learn that in general the authorities consult with persons with disabilities and their organizations. This is done through direct consultations, regular meetings at the technical level and an annual high-level round table with the relevant ministries. Furthermore, all political initiatives and measures are subject to public hearings, in which all stakeholders can participate. The State provides substantial financial support to organizations of persons with disabilities through yearly grants of approximately NKr 200 million, as well as travel subsidies to engage with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 40. Organizations of persons with disabilities in Norway are strong, strategic and well organized. However, they informed the Special Rapporteur that they were not systematically included in all relevant expert committees tasked to prepare reports to the parliament, such as in the case of the expert group for children and adolescents with special educational needs, or the expert group appointed to analyse developments in employment. They also expressed the need to transition from simply consulting with them towards actively involving them in all decisions affecting them directly or indirectly. 41. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to make additional efforts to ensure the meaningful participation of the diversity of persons with disabilities in decisionmaking processes and to support the creation of organizations of persons with disabilities from underrepresented sectors, such as autistic persons and self-advocates with intellectual disabilities. E. Education 42. According to the Education Act, all children up to the age of 15, including those with disabilities, have the right to attend the school closest to their home and the right to an education suited to them through individual accommodation. Pupils who have Norwegian Sign Language as their first language have the right to primary and lower secondary instruction in the use of and through the medium of sign language. Pupils who do not make, or are unable to make, satisfactory use of the ordinary teaching programme can opt for special education. Special education should only be provided after giving due consideration to adjusted teaching in the main classroom and the conduct of a needs assessment. There are support systems for special education at both the national level (the Statped service) and at county/municipal level (the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service). 43. The Special Rapporteur commends Norway for providing education to pupils with disabilities in regular schools as the general rule and for allocating considerable means and resources to its implementation. Nonetheless, there are 56 special education schools (representing 2 per cent of all schools in Norway) and 298 schools with permanent special education classrooms. Almost 9 per cent of pupils with disabilities aged 6 to 15 years (a total of 3,993 children) received education in segregated schools or classrooms in the school year 2017–18. Data shows that the number of pupils receiving special education increases with age, from 4 per cent in first grade to 11 per cent in grade 10. 9 In relation to higher education, a significantly lower proportion of persons with disabilities access higher education compared to the general population. Data from 2015 shows that only 21 per cent of students with disabilities aged between 25 and 44 completed at least one year of higher education, compared to 45 per cent for students without disabilities. 10 9 See www.udir.no/tall-og-forskning/finn-forskning/tema/notat-om-spesialundervisning/ (in Norwegian) and www.bufdir.no/en/English_start_page/Disabilities_in_Norway/ Statistics_on_disabilities_in_Norway/. 10 See www.bufdir.no/Statistikk_og_analyse/Nedsatt_funksjonsevne/Oppvekst_og_utdanning/ Hoyere_utdanning/ (in Norwegian). 9