Inclusive Forensics Framework for Transgender Youth with Special Educational needs in India

Abstract

The transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth with SEN experience complex intersections of vulnerability within the realm of education. In spite of progressive laws, such as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016) and the Transgender Persons Act (2019), India's schools continue to be entrenched within the cisnormative and neuronormative system. Therefore, conventional forms of psycho-educational testing, commonly known as “educational forensics,” have repeatedly failed TGD children. Assessors tend to commit diagnostic overshadowing by misunderstanding the effects of their trauma associated with being part of a marginalized community as well as the spatial exclusion within schools as genuine behavioural problems; this leads to an increase in the school-to-prison pipeline. In order to counter this gap within the existing systems, the current paper offers a new concept called “Inclusive Forensics”. This multi-disciplinary forensic model operates on the principles of trauma-informed differentiation and unbiased assessment protocols, moving the locus of investigation from the pathologizing of the youth to a study of institution-school frictions. Inclusive Forensics will use the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) approach to conduct ecological assessments as well as create a dual-track plan for transition that includes accommodation needs for both disability and gender.