The overrepresentation of minority children, specifically Roma children in special education, is well documented in Central Europe, with studies materializing as early as the mid 1990s. Numerous reports and research studies have shed light on this issue in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. In the Czech Republic in particular, published studies have contributed to making important policy changes to correct and put right the problem.
 

Though the problem was also suspected of being present in Southeast Europe, little had been published on the topic, especially in the English language. This is certainly the case with the Republic of Serbia, where no study could be pointed to as having comprehensive, reliable, or externally verifiable data on the problem. Yet Serbia, with its ongoing education reform, participation in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, and the country’s movement towards accession to the European Union, needs to have statistical evidence in order to inform its policy decision-making process.
 

This study from the Open Society Foundations provides, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the overrepresentation of Roma within special education in Serbia. The data gathered in this research are close to earlier estimates: approximately 30 percent of children within special education in the Republic of Serbia are Roma. Although these numbers are not as high as those in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, they are nonetheless alarmingly high, in view of the fact that Roma make up only about 1.4 percent of the population (based on the 2002 census), or about six percent (based on the approximate number of 450,000 Roma out of the total population in Serbia). It is clear that the vast majority of these children do not belong in special education.