Valparaíso Senate Candidate Jazmín Aguilar: Inclusion Isn’t a Show—We’ll Fight for a Neurodiversity Law with Guaranteed Funding

To deliver concrete solutions for families, teacher, psychologist, and master’s graduate in workplace inclusion Jazmín Aguilar is championing a Neurodiversity Law to replace Chile’s current TEA (Autism) Law. Her plan aims to end uncertainty with funding guaranteed by law, ensuring that every stated right becomes tangible support—specialists, therapies, and services—for those who need them most across the region and the country.

Presenting her assessment, the candidate underscored four critical problem areas:

1. Health care on hold: «Diagnoses take more than a year, 200 families are waiting at the Valparaíso Autism Center, and rural communes have virtually no access. This is the public-health emergency created by underfunded care—a crisis bureaucracy can no longer ignore.»

2. Education’s false inclusion: «In schools, the promise of inclusion rings hollow. We send teachers to the front lines without tools or training, while children—rather than being welcomed—face higher stress and are excluded by a system that offers only empty rhetoric.»

3. Abandonment in adulthood: «The system turns its back once people reach adulthood. For a neurodivergent person, turning 18 often means the state, which should support them, simply disappears. We leave them on their own, with devastating results: nearly half—44%—have suffered workplace discrimination. As a society, that indifference should shame us and compel action.»

4. Caregiving families at the limit: «The emotional and financial burden on families is immense. Without subsidies or state support, caregiving becomes a lonely, precarious task.»

Aguilar urges broadening the focus beyond autism to embrace the full spectrum of neurodiversity: «Being neurodivergent is not an illness. It simply means having a brain that works differently,» she explained.

«We are talking about autism, of course, but also attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, Tourette syndrome, and other conditions. It’s time our laws reflected this reality and protected everyone,» the Senate candidate added.

Inspired by Mexico’s experience, Aguilar’s proposal rests on three pillars: territorial justice, ensuring budgets and specialists in every commune; universal rights, with free diagnosis and truly inclusive education; and dignity, recognizing the value of neurodivergent workers and finally building a real support system with subsidies and respite centers for caregiving families—the backbone of the entire system.

«The era of symbolic gestures and unfunded laws is over,» the candidate concluded. «We propose a law grounded in fairness, resources, and dignity—one that embraces and values neurological diversity across our region and all of Chile. It is an urgent act of social justice.»

El Ciudadano