{"id":22149,"date":"2026-04-10T16:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/speerpunten\/school-participation-council\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:59:25","slug":"school-participation-council","status":"publish","type":"speerpunt","link":"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/en\/speerpunten\/school-participation-council\/","title":{"rendered":"School participation council"},"template":"","class_list":["post-22149","speerpunt","type-speerpunt","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"speerpunt_nummer":"4","samenvatting":"Parents have an important formal position in the school participation council at school and board level. This means they have an important voice on paper in the choices of boards and school leaders.","titel":"Focus point - School participation council","inhoud":"<p><strong> Parents have an important formal position in the school participation council at school and board level. This means they have an important voice on paper in the choices of boards and school leaders.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Every school has a school participation council. In primary education the school participation council has parents and school staff.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> In secondary school parents, teachers and students are in the school participation council. Every overarching school governing body also has a central participation council<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">, which<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> talks about policies and financial matters across schools. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{\" data-wac-het=\"1\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Participating in school decisions<\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Through the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">central participation council or school participation council<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> parents theoretically help decide about the school&#8217;s policy<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. However, in practice, few parents feel they are truly represented by the school participation council. The gap between parents and the school participation council is large: it is not clear enough what the council does. Many parents find the council not visible or effective enough. This is worrying because more responsibilities are given to the council. You can read more about this in <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/en\/staat-van-de-ouder-2021\/?pagina=medezeggenschap\">our annual study \u2018Staat van de Ouder\u2019<\/a>. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Council members are elected by all parents and\/or staff (and students in secondary education). They represent their own group.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{\" data-wac-het=\"1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Important topics for the school participation council<\/h3>\n<p>Currently, the <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/nieuws\/vraag-antwoord-nationaal-programma-onderwijs\/\">National Education Program<\/a> is an important topic for the council. With the school scan the school recently checked how students are doing after corona. Some students fell behind and need extra help in certain subjects. Others struggle socially and feel bad after months of online teaching and little contact with friends. Some children even have a head start in reading or language because they had home teaching from their parents. There are big differences between children. The school gets money from the government to fix this. The plan is to start after summer with a good plan to get all children back on level. The council approves the plan and how the school spends the money. Ask about this at school! Here you can read <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/nieuws\/aandachtspunten-nponderwijs-debat\/\">which focus points we see<\/a> for the National Education Program.<\/p>\n<p>There is currently <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/nieuws\/onderzoek-np-onderwijs\/\">a survey among council members<\/a> about the role of the council in the National Education Program. Help us and <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/nieuws\/onderzoek-np-onderwijs\/\">take part in the survey<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Another important topic is the <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/en\/the-voluntary-parental-contribution\/\">voluntary parent contribution at school<\/a>. It is voluntary, but many parents do not know this. If parents cannot or do not want to pay, the school may not exclude children from activities. Since August 2021 there is <a href=\"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/vrijwillige-ouderbijdrage-eindelijk-wettelijk-geregeld\/\" rel=\"\">a new law<\/a> that regulates this. Ouders &amp; Onderwijs helped other parent groups to make this law happen.<\/p>\n<h3><span data-contrast=\"none\">How does Ouders &amp; Onderwijs help? <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Ouders &amp; Onderwijs wants to strengthen the position of parents in the central participation council or school participation council. In <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">practice their <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">influence<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> is often<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> limited<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. This is partly because they<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> have less knowledge compared to the school governing body<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> or school leaders. Council members spend some of their free time on school matters, but the school governing body works on this all day. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Council members get their information fully from the governing body and often do not know how a school or school governing body works. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">They often do not know their legal tasks well. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">We also see that parents sometimes<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> find it hard to be critical<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> because they fear a bad effect on the relationship between school and their child or children. We help parents to talk with school in a good way. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Making a stand<\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We also think it must be easier for the council to make a stand if really needed. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">In practice this is sometimes hard. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Councils that want legal support are sometimes even opposed. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">This makes parents give up the fight after a while and accept the situation. We give council members tools to do their job as well as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Our position:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">Strengthen school participation council <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">in practice <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">by <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">structurally <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">and independently <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">supporting <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">them in policy, legal and <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">administrative <\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" lang=\"NL-NL\" xml:lang=\"NL-NL\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-wac-het=\"1\">matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW68946549 BCX0\" data-ccp-props=\"{\" data-wac-het=\"1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","afbeelding":21449,"stelling":{"ID":2171,"post_author":"9","post_date":"2020-03-09 14:17:22","post_date_gmt":"2020-03-09 13:17:22","post_content":"","post_title":"Stelling Medezeggenschap","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"draft","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"stelling-medezeggenschap","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-02-15 16:06:58","post_modified_gmt":"2021-02-15 15:06:58","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.crewontour.com\/?post_type=stelling&#038;p=2171","menu_order":0,"post_type":"stelling","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"banner_subtitel":"","banner_afbeelding":"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Ouders-Onderwijs-Image-7.jpg","video_of_afbeelding":"afbeelding","meer_informatie":[{"ID":1717,"post_author":"9","post_date":"2019-02-25 14:50:01","post_date_gmt":"2019-02-25 13:50:01","post_content":"","post_title":"Nieuw: handreiking ouderraadpleging voor de MR","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"nieuw-handreiking-ouderraadpleging-voor-de-mr","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-10-06 15:28:06","post_modified_gmt":"2022-10-06 13:28:06","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/oudersenonderwijs.crewontour.com\/?p=1717","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"call_to_action":"contact","call_to_action_2":"geen","zoekwoorden":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>School participation council - Ouders &amp; 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