A stage in San Joaquín: The quiet growth of Chile’s special education

Dangela Medrano leads a school where the sound of music has finally replaced the protocols of lockdown. In San Joaquín, the 100 students of Escuela Especial Los Copihues began their year in a building designed for dignity, marking a record achievement for the Fundación Coanil network.

For years, the students and teachers of Escuela Especial Los Copihues operated within the residential grid of La Legua Emergencia, a sector where the daily rhythm was often dictated by external security risks. In that former building, the necessity of bullet-resistant windows and lockdown drills formed a constant, heavy backdrop to the delicate work of educating children with intellectual disabilities. The school’s director, Dangela Medrano, lived through those years of enclosure until May 2024, when the foundation finally moved the school to its current, inclusive premises in the San Joaquín commune.

This relocation was not merely a change of address but a restoration of the environment required for learning. The new facility allowed for the introduction of early childhood education and specialized stimulation centers, services that were previously impossible to maintain in the old, cramped quarters. Alejandro Canales, the manager of Fundación Coanil, observed that the move provided the stability necessary for the staff to focus entirely on the students' potential.

The institutional results of this shift have been confirmed by the Ministerio de Educación. During the opening ceremony, Minister María Paz Arzola acknowledged that 19 of the foundation’s 26 schools have been granted the Premio de Excelencia Académica (SNED). This evaluation system, which measures improvements in equality of opportunity and community integration, directs a financial subsidy to the teachers who have navigated the difficult transition from the "Emergencia" sector to these new standards of care.

The foundation, established over five decades ago by the pediatrician Carlos del Valle, has evolved from its origins as a relief corporation into a nationwide infrastructure. At the heart of this expansion is a simple, human gesture: the decision to move a school out of the line of fire. In the quiet corridors of the new Los Copihues, the only thing that remains of the old neighborhood is the name—a reminder of how far Dangela Medrano and her students have traveled.