Bill seeks tax deductions for parents of special children

MANILA, Philippines – Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is seeking the immediate passage of a bill granting tax deductions to parents and legal guardians of children with special needs.

Arroyo and her son Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo authored House Bill 5100, which aims to ease the financial burden of families who have children with special needs.

She said the measure would give parents and legal guardians a tax deduction to help deal with the expenses incurred for therapy of their children.

Under the bill, a qualified taxpayer shall be entitled to a deduction of P50, 000. Expenses that qualify for tax deduction shall include tuition for a private school, therapy, diagnostic evaluations, tutoring, and transportation expenses, and special instructional materials.

“Children with special needs far outweigh the challenges in comparison to dealing with regular and healthy children. Parents need to pay for expensive and specialized services such as occupation, physical and speech therapies to improve the quality of life of their children,” Arroyo said in her measure.

Citing a study of the Special Education Division of the Department of Education, she said the cost of taking care of a child with special needs is at least double compared to those of regular children.

“A child with special needs is understood to be a child who is intellectually disabled, has hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism and traumatic brain injury,” Arroyo said.

In 2009, children with special needs who were enrolled in public elementary schools included those with learning disabilities, she said.

A total of 51,296 children were assessed as learning disabled, while the number of mentally retarded or intellectually disabled children stood at 13,119. Those hearing impaired ranked third at 12,039, Arroyo said.

She said for school year 2007-2008, the number of enrolled children with special needs in both public and private elementary schools was 92,429.

This translates to a 27.6 percent increase from the 79,118 recorded in school year 2004-2005. Many children who have special needs no longer pursue secondary education or manage to stay in elementary schools for an extended period of time.

“In the provinces, children with special needs are not given proper attention since they are often grouped together rather than taught separately, depending on each child’s condition,” Arroyo said.

“To make matters worse, the ideal 10 to 15 student-teacher ratio is not maintained, bringing the number of students up to 25 per teacher,” she said.

Under the bill, those who are qualified as children with special needs are those legitimate, illegitimate or legally adopted children, chiefly dependent, and living with the taxpayer.

This also covers children with special needs who are placed under the legal custody of an immediate family member or relative. –Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)