Between Discourse and Reality: Decree No. 12,686/2025 and the Contradictions of Inclusive Education in Brazil

Abstract

This article presents a critical and documentary analysis of Decree No. 12,686/2025, which establishes the National Policy on Inclusive Special Education and the National Network of Special Education. Based on a theoretical and analytical approach grounded in Studies on Difference, the Philosophy of Education, and Critical Perspectives on Inclusion, the study seeks to understand how the official discourse of inclusion — sustained by the decree — materializes or becomes strained when confronted with the Brazilian social and educational reality. The main objective is to identify, within the legal text, both the normative advances and the structural fragilities that expose the gap between political intentions and the concrete conditions of implementation. The research follows a qualitative, documentary methodology, examining the decree’s provisions in dialogue with related legislation (LDB, Brazilian Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, and Decree No. 7,611/2011) and with contemporary academic studies on inclusive education and educational policy. Findings indicate that, while Decree No. 12,686/2025 represents progress by reaffirming the right to inclusive and equitable education, it still presents significant gaps in budgetary guarantees, teacher training, and the effective realization of inclusive practices in public schools. It concludes that the normative text reinforces the ideal of inclusion but remains grounded in a logic of regulation and control that distances the principle of difference from the lived experience of Brazilian schools.