Parent advisory council talks about student transport, unsafe situations and school costs.

Parent advisory council talks about student transport, unsafe situations and school costs.

On Wednesday 13 October, the Parent Advisory Board of Ouders & Onderwijs met again. This board of regional and national parent organizations advises Ouders & Onderwijs on the content direction and discusses cooperation opportunities. This time, they talked about student transport, unsafe situations outside home, and school costs for parents.

Student transport and tailored education

Parents of children in special education feel concerned about very long travel times. Ouders & Onderwijs believes the norm of 90 minutes (in the VNG model regulation) should return to 45 minutes and the quality of the student transport should be good. Ouders & Onderwijs will talk with VNG about this and consider possible next steps. In the long run, more inclusive education will help fix problems in student transport.

Other parent organizations recognize the ongoing problem with the quality of student transport.
Points they raise include:

• Current student transport only covers home to school, not to child care locations.
• After-school care for children with extra support needs is not enough.

School costs campaign

On 16 October, Kassa presented the results of the school costs study. In short, the key points are:
– Parents with children in secondary education face high school costs; a third of parents struggle to pay the voluntary parental contribution, and 4% cannot pay at all.
– Laptops and tablets make up a large part of school costs for parents. The solution: make digital learning tools part of the Law on Free School Books.
– Schools poorly informed parents about the August change to the law on the voluntary parental contribution.

Unsafe situations outside home

The report by Balans on unsafe situations outside home has led to much media and political attention. School (81%), and also the professional at school, is often named as place and cause of unsafe situations. Parents often fear sanctions, reporting for protection measures, or reprisals for another child (at the same school) when they file complaints. It is notable that Veilig Thuis said it does not have a good overview. Because of this, Balans opened a reporting point. More talks and an independent reporting point for parents are urgently needed.

Active for parents in mbo

Ouders & Onderwijs will focus more on parents with children in mbo and make sure topics like tailored education, school costs, and new study paths are on the mbo agenda. A new mbo advisor will start on 1 November.

Approaching politics together

In recent times, parent organizations have worked together often to make the parent voice stronger. Before the debate on digital education on 1 November, the parent organizations sent a joint letter to the parliament. They will send another joint letter to informants Johan Remkes and Wouter Koolmees with points to improve education.

About the Parent Advisory Board

This meeting had representatives from Voor Werkende Ouders, Reformatorische Oudervereniging, Oudervereniging Balans, Ouders010, OCO Amsterdam, the Network of Parent Initiatives, and the Vereniging Openbaar Onderwijs (observer). The Parent Advisory Board of Ouders & Onderwijs was founded in 2020 and meets three times a year.