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How the official decision of special educational needs (SEN) in the country relates to the agreed EASIE operational definition

Operational definition

An official decision leads to a child/learner being recognised as eligible for additional educational support to meet their learning needs.

 

Criteria for an official decision of SEN

  • There has been an educational assessment procedure involving a multi-disciplinary team
  • The multi-disciplinary team includes members from within and external to the child’s/learner’s (pre)school
  • There is a legal document which describes the support the child/learner is eligible to receive and which is used as the basis for planning
  • The official decision is subject to a formal, regular review process

Educational assessment procedure in the country

Since 2014, the regional school alliances have their own educational assessment procedures (instead of a nationwide procedure). The outcomes of the assessment procedure can lead to a declaration for admission to special education. A multi-disciplinary team makes this decision.

How the multi-disciplinary team is comprised in the country

The law requires that two experts be involved in the assessment procedure. One of the experts must be a special education generalist or a psychologist; the school or the regional school alliance chooses the other expert.

The legal document used in the country to outline the support that the child/learner is eligible to receive

The assessment procedure provides an individual development plan, which describes the educational objectives for that child/learner. It indicates the level the child/learner can achieve and the support that they will need to achieve it.

How the document is used as the basis for planning in the country

The school discusses with parents the form the development plan is to take.

The formal, regular review process in the country

The declaration for admission is valid for at least a year. The regional school alliance sets the criteria for duration and review of the declaration.

 

Proxy indicator for the 80% benchmark used for the country’s data collection

The EASIE work uses an 80% benchmark of inclusive education. This is defined as:

An inclusive setting refers to education where the child/learner with SEN follows education in mainstream classes alongside their mainstream peers for most – 80% or more – of the school week.

Proxy indicator used

Placement in a mainstream class implies over 80% or more.

Details on what the country proxy is

There is no proxy available. All children/learners are in mainstream settings, except for those who are in special education settings. There are children/learners with SEN in mainstream settings, but they are not recorded nationwide.

 

Detailed description of what ‘out of formal education’ means within the country

The 2011 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) defines ‘formal education’ as follows:

[…] education that is institutionalised, intentional and planned through public organizations and recognised private bodies and, – in their totality – constitute the formal education system of a country. Formal education programmes are thus recognised as such by the relevant national education or equivalent authorities, e.g. any other institution in cooperation with the national or sub-national educational authorities. Formal education consists mostly of initial education […] Vocational education, special needs education and some parts of adult education are often recognised as being part of the formal education system. Qualifications from formal education are by definition recognised and, therefore, are within the scope of ISCED. Institutionalised education occurs when an organization provides structured educational arrangements, such as student-teacher relationships and/or interactions, that are specially designed for education and learning.

(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2011, International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 2011, p. 11).

Do the country definitions of formal, non-formal and informal education differ from the ISCED definitions?

No, Netherlands uses the same definitions as ISCED.

How specific cases – such as home-educated children/learners – are considered

Home-educated children/learners are considered as being in non-formal education.

Children/learners who are considered out of formal education (meaning those not in formal education as defined by ISCED)

Children/learners out of education are those who are educated at home or who receive Dutch education in a foreign country. There are also children/learners who cannot go to school (temporarily) because of their medical or psychological condition.

How the population of children/learners who are out of formal education is defined

Some of them are receiving non-formal or informal education, at home or during daytime activities. Some of them are in therapy or are receiving medical or psychological treatments.

 

Provision of data on private sector education

The data collection covers all sectors of education, including numbers for the child/learner population in the private sector.

Private sector education in the country

Private schools may be based on a particular denomination, such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Anthroposophy, or an educational model, such as Montessori, Dalton, Freinet or Jenaplan. Public and private may also be based on combinations of denominational and educational ideas (e.g. Catholic Montessori school or public Dalton school). Although most private schools are funded by the government, a few are privately funded.

Child/learner population counted for each relevant question

Exact data is not available, because the private, non-government-funded sector is not obliged to record data on learners. Therefore, an estimation of learners in privately-funded schools is included.

Specific issues with providing data on private sector education and how these have been overcome in the data collection

The number of learners in private, non-government-funded primary education (ISCED 1) is marginal (0.3%). In general secondary education (ISCED 2/3), a small number of learners are enrolled in non-government-funded, private education (3.4%) (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2016. ‘Key Figures Education’).

 

ISCED level age ranges

The following are the most common (pre)school entrance ages and (pre)school leaving ages for the different ISCED levels:

Age range in the country at ISCED level 02 (pre-primary): 4 to 5

Age range in the country at ISCED level 1: 6 to 12

Age range in the country at ISCED level 2: 13 to 16

Age range in the country at ISCED level 3: 17 to 18

 

2012/2013 and 2014/2015 data background information

This country updated its background information for the 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 datasets. PDFs of the background information for the 2012/2013 dataset and the 2014/2015 dataset are available.

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