Various issues exist around special needs education even after the recent revision of Basic Act for Persons with Disabilities and related laws. For example, those issues are the lack of supports for children with disabilities for the life-span development, cooperation of various organizations, and relationship between local communities and special needs schools. Schools with new values, where people cross by, are needed as a place of “共育,” that is a collaborated nurturing in a local community.
 In this project, researchers of pedagogy, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, history, and architecture will make a study about latest practices, ideas, cognition, and structures of special needs education from interdisciplinary viewpoints. The results will be suggested as “The Initiative of Itoshima Laboratory School” for the establishment of a special needs school in Itoshima City, Fukuoka, as the project members participate in the preparatory committee of the foundation. In particular, we will suggest (1) making a curriculum focusing arts-and-crafts practices and (2) opening the school as a place of flexible “system” through discussions of teachers, students, and the persons concerned. The results of this research are significant as a social implementation. This project will present an example of universal design to enable the participation of the persons involved in special needs education and will suggest “Arts, Crafts and Democracy for All” as a new value of school system.