In short: Guatemala has a specific special-education law, Decreto 58-2007, and it binds public and private schools alike. Its Article 9 is the one to know: students with special needs “deben ser matriculados en el nivel que les corresponda”, and the programme is modified to meet their needs. Private schools are obliged to contract the specialist support they need (Art. 5 d). A separate disability law, Decreto 135-96, lists what adaptations include — specialist staff, curricular adaptations, evaluations, teaching materials and the building. The national regulator is DIGEESP, MINEDUC’s special-education directorate, with a coordinator in each of the 22 departments. For therapy, we list three private providers that publish what they do; none publishes a price. This page is about systems and rights, not diagnosis or treatment.
The decision table
| Your question | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Must a school enrol my child? | Yes, in the corresponding level, “Sin discriminación alguna” | Decreto 58-2007, Art. 9 |
| Does this bind private schools? | Yes — the law applies to all public and private institutions | Decreto 58-2007, Art. 1 |
| Who pays for support in a private school? | The school must contract the advice and technical support | Decreto 58-2007, Art. 5 d |
| Who pays in a public school? | DIGEESP provides it; a school may request an aula recurso (resource room) | Decreto 58-2007, Arts. 5 d, 15 |
| When is a special school appropriate? | When the case is too complex for a regular school | Decreto 58-2007, Art. 7 |
| Will the adaptations be documented? | Yes — the school certifies adaptations and achievements at each level change | Decreto 58-2007, Art. 10 |
| Placement test when arriving without records | Adjusted by the school per DIGEESP guidelines | MINEDUC instructivo ACR-INS-01 V.5, Nota 2 |
| Where does therapy happen? | Private providers that publish their services; IGSS’s Hospital de Rehabilitación | Providers’ own sites; IGSS (2019) |
The law that governs school inclusion
Decreto 58-2007, the Ley de Educación Especial para las Personas con Capacidades Especiales, was approved by Congress on 13 November 2007 and published in the Diario de Centro América on 5 March 2008. The articles a relocating parent needs:
It applies to every school. Article 1: the law applies to “todas las instituciones educativas, tanto públicas como privadas” that operate in the national territory.
Enrolment is not optional. Article 9: “Sin discriminación alguna, los estudiantes con capacidades especiales, deben ser matriculados en el nivel que les corresponda, por lo que el programa educativo se modificará a fin de satisfacer las necesidades educativas especiales de cada alumno, con y sin discapacidad, inscrito”. The obligation runs to the programme, not the child: the school adapts.
Special schools are the exception. Article 7 defines them as serving people “que por la complejidad del caso, no puedan ser atendidos en centros educativos regulares”.
Private schools buy their own support. Article 5(d) splits the duty: DIGEESP gives public schools permanent advice and technical support, and “los centros educativos regulares y especiales privados están obligados a contratar de manera individual o colectiva entre centros educativos, asesorías y los apoyos técnicos necesarios para brindar la educación especial”.
Adaptations are documented. Article 8 has MINEDUC approve adecuaciones curriculares, individual or general, on DIGEESP’s proposal. Article 10 obliges every public or private school, when a student moves up a level, to issue a certificate “indicando los cambios y adaptaciones curriculares a los que cada estudiante estuvo sujeto y especificando los logros de aprendizaje”. That certificate is what follows your child from school to school inside Guatemala.
Public schools can request a resource room. Article 15: “Dependiendo de las necesidades de la escuela, se debe requerir a la DIGEESP un aula recurso”.
There is someone to call in each department. Article 18 gives DIGEESP “un coordinador en cada uno de los 22 departamentos”, based at the Dirección Departamental de Educación. That coordinator is the person to ask about support in the public system.
The disability law adds the detail
Decreto 135-96, the Ley de Atención a las Personas con Discapacidad, came first and says the same thing in broader terms:
- Article 25: the right to education runs “desde la estimulación temprana hasta la educación superior”, and “Esta disposición incluye tanto la educación pública como la privada”.
- Article 28: support “incluyen los recursos humanos especializados, adecuaciones curriculares, evaluaciones, metodología, recursos didácticos y planta física”.
- Article 29: “Las personas con discapacidad podrán recibir su educación en el sistema educativo regular, con los servicios de apoyo requeridos”.
- Article 30: education “deberá impartirse durante los mismos horarios de las regulares, preferentemente en el centro educativo más cercano al lugar de su residencia”.
- Article 31 puts a duty on parents too: “Es obligación de los padres, tutores o representantes, inscribir y velar porque las personas con discapacidad asistan regularmente a clases”.
Arriving from the US with an IEP
Guatemala has no instrument that recognises a US Individualized Education Program. The pieces that do exist map onto it:
| What your IEP gives you | The Guatemalan counterpart |
|---|---|
| Documented accommodations and modifications | Adecuaciones curriculares, approved by MINEDUC on DIGEESP’s proposal (Art. 8) |
| A record that follows the child | The school’s level-change certificate of adaptations and achievements (Art. 10) |
| Related services (speech, OT) delivered at school | Public: DIGEESP support and resource rooms. Private: whatever the school has contracted (Art. 5 d) |
| Placement | Enrolment in the corresponding level (Art. 9); placement test adjusted per DIGEESP when records are missing |
What to do with the paperwork:
- Bring the IEP and the most recent evaluations, with a translation. The school uses them as evidence; they are not binding in Guatemala.
- Enrol through the normal route. Grade placement follows MINEDUC’s equiparación procedure — see enrolling a foreign child in a Guatemalan school. If your child arrives without usable records and must sit a placement test, MINEDUC’s instructivo says that “Para los estudiantes con necesidades educativas especiales, el centro educativo ajustará la evaluación, según los lineamientos establecidos por la Dirección General de Educación Especial -DIGEESP-”.
- Ask private schools, in writing, what support they have contracted under Article 5(d) — a learning-support team, an external therapist, a shadow aide policy — and what it costs. The law creates the duty; it does not tell you what a given school has done about it.
- For a public school, ask the departmental DIGEESP coordinator (Art. 18) whether the school has, or can request, a resource room (Art. 15).
For the shortlist of English-language schools, start with international schools in Guatemala City and bilingual schools in Antigua. Neither list tells you about learning-support capacity; that is question 3 above.
Where therapy services exist
Private providers that publish their services
Read on their own websites on 23 September 2026. Listing is not an endorsement, and none of them publishes prices — ask for a written quote.
| Provider | Where | What its own site says it offers |
|---|---|---|
| FUNDABIEM | National network; first centre (1989) at km 18.5, Carretera Panamericana, Mixco | Created in 1986 by Acuerdo Gubernativo 415-86; it held its first Teletón the same year. Medical care, physiotherapy, mechanotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, psychology, social work |
| CECLIDI | Vista Hermosa, zona 15, Guatemala City; operating “Desde junio de 2004” | Evaluation and diagnosis; autism evaluation using ADOS-2, which it says usually takes 5 to 6 hours; psychopedagogical evaluations from age 5 to 19; speech and language therapy, including early intervention from 18 months to 4 years; sensory therapy; reading and writing therapy |
| CIMA | Not stated on the page read | An early-intervention therapy centre for children with autism and special needs, working on applied behaviour analysis (ABA) |
We did not find, on the pages we read, a statement that any of these providers delivers therapy in English. Ask.
Through IGSS
IGSS, Guatemala’s social security institute, reports that its Hospital de Rehabilitación treats children with autism. In a news item dated 2 April 2019, IGSS said it “apoya con terapias a más de 200 niños nuevos por año, los que se suman a los 450 que se encuentran recibiendo atención especializada”. That is a 2019 figure and describes the IGSS system only.
Through public health
A presentation by MSPAS, filed in CONADI’s catalogue of services, lists a health-ministry programme for Salud del Adulto Mayor y Personas con Discapacidad and describes a planned certificación biopsicosocial — an official certificate of disability status meant to give access to state programmes and benefits — together with an implementation plan. The deck does not say the certificate is being issued yet, and we did not find a published start date.
CONADI — the national disability council
CONADI, the Consejo Nacional para la Atención de las Personas con Discapacidad, was created by Article 22 of Decreto 135-96 as an autonomous body “con carácter coordinador, asesor e impulsor de políticas generales en materia de discapacidad”.
What is useful to a family: its website keeps a Catálogo de Programas y Servicios Externos para Personas con Discapacidad, listing programmes offered by cooperating public institutions — IGSS, MSPAS, MINTRAB (including its inclusive-employment programme) and USAC. CONADI is at 1a. Avenida 4-18, zona 1, telephone 2501-6800.
Money: what support exists
- MINEDUC scholarship for students with disabilities — public schools only. Its 2021 instructivo describes eligible students (physical, hearing, visual, intellectual and multiple disabilities, “trastornos generalizados del desarrollo o trastornos del espectro autista”, among others) enrolled in public schools, from economically vulnerable families. It refers to a grant of “los mil quetzales (Q.1,000.00) de la beca”, and says the number and amount of grants depend on each year’s budget. A medical certificate is needed only when the disability is not physically evident.
- Private therapy and private-school support: we found no state subsidy.
What this page does not do
It does not diagnose, recommend a therapy or assess any provider’s quality. It tells you what Guatemalan law requires of schools, which public bodies are responsible, and which private providers publish what they offer.
Sources
All read on 23 September 2026:
- Decreto 58-2007, Ley de Educación Especial para las Personas con Capacidades Especiales — Diario de Centro América, 5 March 2008 (scan hosted by larediberoamericana.com), cross-checked against MINEDUC’s CNB compendium of special-education law.
- Decreto 135-96, Ley de Atención a las Personas con Discapacidad (CONADI PDF).
- CONADI, Catálogo de Programas y Servicios Externos.
- MINEDUC, Instructivo del Programa de Becas para Estudiantes con Discapacidad (2021).
- MINEDUC instructivo ACR-INS-01 Versión 5, Nota 2, via DIGEACE.
- IGSS, El Hospital de Rehabilitación del IGSS atiende a niños con autismo, 2 April 2019.
- FUNDABIEM, CECLIDI and CIMA, own websites.
Related guides
- Enrolling a foreign child in a Guatemalan school
- Homeschooling in Guatemala
- Mental health and therapy in Guatemala
- Physiotherapist prices
- Healthcare in Guatemala
- Private tutor prices
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Guatemalan school refuse my child because of a disability or special need?
The law says no. Article 9 of Decreto 58-2007, the Ley de Educación Especial, says students with special needs must be enrolled, without discrimination, in the level that corresponds to them, and that the educational programme will be modified to meet each student’s needs. Article 1 applies the law to all educational institutions, public and private. Article 7 reserves special schools for cases so complex that a regular school cannot serve them. How consistently private schools apply this is not something any official source we read measures.
Do private schools in Guatemala have to provide special-needs support?
Under Article 5(d) of Decreto 58-2007, MINEDUC’s special-education directorate (DIGEESP) gives public schools advice and technical support, while private schools are obliged to contract — individually or jointly with other schools — the advice and technical support needed to provide special education. In other words, the duty exists, but a private school buys the support itself. Ask each school, in writing, what support it has contracted.
Will a Guatemalan school accept my child's US IEP?
There is no Guatemalan instrument that recognises a US IEP as such. What exists is the Guatemalan equivalent of its outputs: Article 8 of Decreto 58-2007 provides for curricular adaptations (adecuaciones curriculares), individual or not, approved by MINEDUC on DIGEESP’s proposal, and Article 10 obliges every school to certify the adaptations each student had and the learning achieved when they move up a level. Bring the IEP and recent evaluations, translated, as evidence for designing those adaptations.
Where can a child get speech, occupational or autism therapy in Guatemala?
Three private providers publish their services on their own websites: FUNDABIEM, a national rehabilitation foundation (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, psychology); CECLIDI in zona 15, Guatemala City (evaluations including an autism assessment using ADOS-2, speech and language therapy, psychopedagogy); and CIMA, an early-intervention centre for autism based on applied behaviour analysis. None publishes prices. IGSS’s rehabilitation hospital reported treating autistic children in 2019. This page gives no medical advice.
What is CONADI?
The Consejo Nacional para la Atención de las Personas con Discapacidad, created by Decreto 135-96 as an autonomous body that coordinates, advises and promotes disability policy. Its website publishes a catalogue of programmes and services offered by cooperating public institutions — IGSS, MSPAS, MINTRAB and USAC — and it is at 1a. Avenida 4-18, zona 1, telephone 2501-6800.
Is there financial help for a child with a disability in Guatemala?
MINEDUC runs a scholarship for students with disabilities enrolled in public schools, for families in vulnerable economic conditions; its 2021 instructivo refers to a Q1,000 grant, and the number and amount of grants depend on the budget each year. It does not cover private-school pupils. We found no state subsidy for private therapy.
