Ranchi, March 15: While the country is preparing to embrace the right to education law from April 1, four schools have shamed Jharkhand by reportedly denying admission to children with special needs.

Complaints have been registered with the state disability commissioner against a CBSE school in Hazaribagh, another in Ranchi and two more in Jamshedpur. The complainants include disgruntled parents as well as a Jamshedpur-based voluntary organisation, Viklang Manch.

Disability commissioner Satish Chandra confirmed that he had received complaints over the past week. He said he had already spoken to the principal of the Hazaribagh school and had been assured that the matter would be looked into. “If the school fails to admit the child within a week, it may lose its affiliation,” Chandra added.

According to CBSE guidelines, any school that fails to provide attention to a child with special needs or makes pretext to deny admission is liable to stringent action, including cancellation of affiliation.

Chandra said he was holding talks with the other schools, but refused to give names. “A couple of schools have cited reasons like shortage of trained teachers and essential infrastructure for not admitting special children. We will see what can be done,” he said.

A few city schools have, meanwhile, denied the allegations. “We’re strictly following CBSE guidelines to admit children with special needs,” claimed DPS principal J. Mohanty.

Dr Abhinav Kumar, the state in-charge of inclusive education, conceded that most schools lacked basic infrastructure for special children and the lacunae needed to be filled up first. The government was working overtime to strengthen infrastructure. He said three state-level nodal agencies had been set up. “The objectives are identifying special kids and being an exposure-cum-training centre.”

Sudha Lhila, the executive director of Deepshikha, a centre for the mentally challenged, said they had started transition classes to prepare spurned children.