Ouders & Onderwijs sounds the alarm: thousands of children do not receive tailored education.

Ouders & Onderwijs sounds the alarm: thousands of children do not receive tailored education.

In 2014, tailored education was introduced. After eleven years, we see that the problems have actually only grown bigger. This is clear from the report about the signals around tailored education. Ouders & Onderwijs received more than 4,500 signals from parents about problems with tailored education last year. This is an alarming number that has been increasing for years.

The situations parents face are often distressing. Parents cannot find a school for their child, schools refer children to special education at a younger age, and support is often insufficient in the full classes in regular education. The result is a large and growing number of out‑of‑school children, long waiting lists in special education, and parents getting stuck in a complicated school system.

Lobke Vlaming, director of Ouders & Onderwijs explains: “Every working day we hear dozens of stories from parents stuck in the system. These are not incidents, but structural problems that call for fundamental changes.”

Nine worrying signals

The report talks about nine different signals, all about problems with tailored education:

• Support in regular schools is insufficient
• Referrals to special education are made too early
• The development perspective plan is not properly made or is not made at all
• Schools misuse the term ‘lack of action competence’
• The legal duty of care is not followed
• Waiting lists in special education are too long
• Problems with the funding of care in education
• Structural problems with student transport
• A growing number of out‑of‑school children without signs of development

Call to action

On May 21 there is a debate in the House of Representatives about tailored education. Twenty parent and student organizations call on politics and the cabinet in a letter to act. There must be improvements with visible effect for children and their parents. Therefore, the report makes concrete improvement proposals, including:

• Ensure smaller classes in regular education. 
• Introduce a right to education: every child has the right to education and development 
• Require schools that say they have a lack of action competence to make a plan to become action competent. 
• Ensure a meeting between school, parents, and students about the development perspective plan and about the declaration of admissibility. 
• Set a maximum travel time in student transport of 45 minutes one way.

“Tailored education must really become tailored. Not on paper, but in practice: for every child,” says Lobke Vlaming.

call from twenty organizations: give tailored education more attention

In a joint letter Ouders & Onderwijs and 19 other organizations call on politicians to give more urgency to tailored education. On wednesday 21 may 2025, the House of Representatives will discuss tailored education with state secretary Paul (education) and state secretary Karremans (duty of care).

In the letter the organizations ask politicians to take action to improve tailored education. You can follow this debate online.