Research Nro: Duty of care law has wrong effects.

Research Nro: Duty of care law has wrong effects.

Tailored education has faced a tight budget, bureaucracy, and delays in recent years. The intention was that more children with a disability, learning or behavioral problem could attend a regular school, but this did not happen. These are the conclusions from the evaluation by the National Steering Body for Educational Research, carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

Goal

The goal of the law Tailored Education from 2014 was that every student should get a suitable place in education as smoothly and affordably as possible. Schools got a duty of care, so they had to offer fitting support if it was clear a child needed this. This way fewer children would have to stay at home and it would be easier for parents to find a suitable school. But the researchers say that the reality showed the expectations were not met.

Bureaucracy

In de Volkskrant researcher Guuske Ledoux says: “When the law was introduced, it was expected that less money would go to bureaucracy and more money would go to the classroom. Teachers would get help to support children. That did not happen. Many education workers say that since 2014, there has been more bureaucracy.”

Higher workload

This leads to a higher workload for teachers. And this while just under six years after the law started, not substantially more students with a disability, learning, or behavioral problem went to a regular school. Teachers say they did not get more help to support these students because there was no money.

Students staying at home

The goal to reduce the number of students staying home was also not met. Early this year it became clear that the number of children who did not go to school for more than three months rose in 2019 to 4,790, an increase of 311 students compared to the previous year.

Wording

Besides, the law is vague. Goals, target groups and intended results are not well fixed. So it is hard to say about the long-term development of tailored education. Also the law does not clearly say which students qualify for extra support.

Criticism

There has been criticism of the law from teachers, students and parents for a long time. Thousands of parents contact Ouders & Onderwijs every year who do not get tailored education for their children. Nothing shows that the concerns of parents have lessened since the start of the law. In the Focus Points, Ouders & Onderwijs argues it must be different. Tailored education needs big investments in smaller classes, more help for teachers, and better training. More attention is needed for the expertise of parents; much more tailoring should be possible, and parents should get better information and support. In mid-June, Ouders & Onderwijs presents the view of parents on tailored education in the Staat van de Ouder.

Position

Minister Slob will come with a position about the evaluation and a proposal for the future after summer. The final report Evaluation Tailored Education is online for reading.

Questions

For questions about tailored education, you can visit the thema page of Ouders & Onderwijs or the page listing concerns of parents. If you have questions, you can call Ouders & Onderwijs on weekdays at 088-6050101 or send a message to vraag@oudersenonderwijs.nl