This report details the 1987 Education Conference. It features a keynote address on the new educational system for children with disabilities.

The Educational and Libraries Order of January 1986 brought Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK's 1981 Educational Act. It was a long road following the publication of the Warnock Report in 1978. This influential document was pivotal to the changing approach to special needs education. It asserted that educational goals for children with special educational needs are identical to those of every other child. 

In April 1987, a supplementary order transferred educational responsibility of people with disabilities from Health and Social Service Boards to Education Boards. Pupils with special needs will now have a right to education. Parents welcome the reforms as it offers the prospect of improving the services already provided to special needs students.