Voluntary parent contribution finally legally regulated.

Voluntary parent contribution finally legally regulated.

Since August 1 the law on the voluntary parent contribution is in force. It means that students can always join all extra school activities. Whether parents pay the contribution or not no longer matters. This applies to both primary education and secondary education.

The basis of the new law is that all students can join all activities organized by the school. Schools may no longer offer a student a free alternative because the parents have not paid. This must be clear in the school guide and the school plan. All children thus have equal chances.

School governing body

The voluntary parent contribution applies to primary schools and secondary schools. It is a voluntary financial contribution from parents to their child’s school. The school governing body determines how high this contribution is. It also decides what the school spends the parent contribution on. The school participation council of the school must agree to this.

Extra activities

Schools often spend the contribution on extra activities outside the regular curriculum. For example, a school trip, Christmas dinner, or sports day. But it can also be tutoring, homework guidance, exam training, and (long-term) bilingual education. Information about the amount and the spending of the parent contribution must be in the school guide. From now on the voluntary parent contribution for all these matters is truly voluntary. You decide whether you pay (part of) the voluntary parent contribution. Besides the voluntary parent contribution schools often ask parents to pay other school costs.

Exclusion

Ouders & Onderwijs has long found that exclusion of children by schools is undesirable. For parents it is often unclear whether the contribution is really voluntary. Many parents experience the voluntary parent contribution as an obligation. If it was not paid there was a chance that children were not allowed to join activities. “It is not explainable to children that they are not allowed to go on school trips or follow lesson programs only because parents cannot or do not want to pay the contribution,” said director Lobke Vlaming earlier about this.

Initiative law

We called on politics to vote for the initiative proposal of Members of Parliament Peter Kwint (SP) and Lisa Westerveld (GroenLinks). When after the House of Representatives last year also the Senate agreed, the way was clear for final change. The new law came into effect on August 1.

More information

Read everything you need to know about school costs and the voluntary parent contribution. If you have questions about this you can contact Ouders & Onderwijs by phone on working days at 088-6050101.