The speech, delivered to the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, outlining the government's legislative programme, also reiterated the government's commitment to raising standards in secondary schools.

Education measures

Special Educational Needs and Disability Bill Raise standards in secondary schools More specialist schools Raise standards in inner-city comprehensives

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Bill, which will apply to England and Wales and in part in Scotland, will reinforce the right of children with physical or behavioural problems to be taught in mainstream classes.

It will be backed by the promise of �392m to improve access in schools and colleges.

The proposed anti-discriminatory measure would make it illegal to treat disabled pupils "less favourably" than other pupils and requires schools to make "reasonable adjustments" so that disabled pupils are not put at a "substantial disadvantage".

There will be extra funds to improve access to schools and colleges

It will also place new requirements on local education authorities to provide parents with advice and information and to set up systems for settling disputes.

Local authorities would also be forced to implement the decisions of special educational needs tribunals within a set period of time.

The announcement was welcomed by disability charity, Scope, which described the proposed legislation as "a building block for equality. This new legislation is a key step forward in our campaign for equality for disabled people".

And the support for parents wanting to send children with special needs to a mainstream school was welcomed by mental health charity, Mencap.

Children with a learning disability want to be able to go to their local school, just like everyone else. Society should not be about segregation, but acceptance and school is the place for children to learn this

Richard Kramer, Mencap

"Children with a learning disability want to be able to go to their local school - just like everyone else. Society should not be about segregation, but acceptance and school is the place for children to learn this," said the head of campaigns, Richard Kramer.

The Queen's speech also asserted the high priority given to raising standards in schools, particularly for secondary pupils.

After the improvements in primary schools, which the government ascribes to its literacy and numeracy programmes, there will now be an emphasis on 11 to 14 year old pupils.

This will see the system of tests and targets and a literacy and numeracy strategy applied to these early secondary years.

The speech also signalled the continuing expansion of the specialist school sector, in which state secondary schools are given extra funds to become specialists in a subject area such as technology, the arts or modern languages.

The government's plans for secondary schools stretch beyond the next election, with proposals for a thousand specialist schools by 2004.

In the inner-cities, there will be further support for "urban school reform", which will see initiatives such as the "gifted and talented" project for the most able pupils and the provision of "learning mentors" to cut down on truancy and to work with families.