The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the role and influence of school leaders in fostering inclusive education for students with disabilities and special educational needs through three perspectives that have not commonly been used in this way: ethics of care, ethics of justice, and human rights. The methodology incorporates secondary data analysis of transcripts from two datasets, one from interviews completed during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) with principals from four provinces in Canada and a second dataset from interviews with principals in Haiti in 2023. Using the conceptual framework of ethics of care (Noddings, Oxf Rev Educ 38(6):771–781, 2012), the Multiple Ethical Paradigms (Shapiro and Gross 2013), and Davis et al.’s (Inclusive education as a human right. In: Inclusive education for the 21st century. Routledge, pp 79–99, 2020) human rights approach, we consider ethical decision-making in educational leadership in addition to aspects of leadership for social justice including the value of listening and dialogue. An ethics of care framework has been used to explore teachers’ role in nurturing positive classroom spaces but has not been significantly applied to the role of the school principal (Smylie et al., Am J Educ 123(1):1–35, 2016). Building on the work of Robert Starratt (Ethical leadership. Wiley, 2004; A multidimensional ethical framework. In: Starratt R (ed) Cultivating an ethical school. Routledge, pp 35–54, 2012), Shapiro and Gross’s (2013) framework of four distinct yet interrelated paradigms (ethic of justice, ethic of critique, ethic of care, and ethic of profession) provides a thorough examination of the ethical challenges faced by educational leaders in complex and often turbulent contexts. Based on Smylie et al.’s (Am J Educ 123(1):1–35, 2016) identification of three main elements of caring school leadership—leader caring, caring communities, and developing caring beyond the school—we explore the role and influence of school leaders in ensuring that all students are fully and authentically included in neighborhood schools. In that sense, we reinforce Davis et al.’s (Inclusive education as a human right. In: Inclusive education for the 21st century. Routledge, pp 79–99, 2020) argument that inclusive education is not only a pedagogical approach but also a fundamental human right. This chapter provides an important contribution to the handbook by addressing the gap in the scholarly literature on school leadership and inclusive education for students with disabilities and special educational needs. It also is important because it provides a comparative and international perspective on the issue. As well, we raise related issues of importance to the scholarship on school leadership and inclusive education, particularly in relationship to leadership for social justice, including the importance of listening and dialogue, motivational displacement, and principal wellbeing.