Sweden - Country Background Information
- Describing the forms of education in the country
- Identifying an ‘inclusive setting’ in the country
- What an ‘official decision of SEN’ means in the country
- What ‘out-of-education’ means in the country
The EASIE data collection covers all recognised forms of education at ISCED levels 02, 1, 2 and 3.
This means any type of education organised by or approved by any recognised educational provider in the public or private sector: municipality, local or regional educational provider from the public or private sector, working with/for ministries responsible for education and areas such as health, social, welfare, labour, justice, etc.
6–15
What are the typical age ranges for the ISCED levels?
| ISCED LEVEL 02 | ISCED LEVEL 1 | ISCED LEVEL 2 | ISCED LEVEL 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 7-12 | 13-15 | 16-18 (In upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities the typical age range is 16–19 at ISCED level 3) |
In Sweden, private sector schools (independent schools) have the same obligations as public sector schools to provide data to the Swedish National Agency for Education. Swedish independent schools must be approved by the Schools Inspectorate and follow the national curricula and syllabuses, just like regular municipal schools. However, independent schools are led by a school board instead of the municipality’s educational administration.
The ‘Special forms of education’ section in the Education Act regulates education in the health sector, special youth homes (SiS), international schools and learners who fulfil compulsory schooling in another way. The data monitoring system often considers special forms of education as temporary and data about these learners relates to the school they typically or earlier belonged to. Data is only collected from international schools as an ordinary educational setting.
In the EASIE data collection, an inclusive setting is operationally defined as:
A recognised form of education where the child/learner follows education in mainstream classes alongside their peers for the largest part – 80% or more – of the school week.
The 80% time placement benchmark clearly indicates that a child/learner is educated in a mainstream class for the majority of their school week. At the same time, it acknowledges possibilities for small group or one-to-one withdrawal for limited periods of time (i.e. 20% or one day a week).
Very few participating countries can provide exact data on children/learners spending 80% of their time in a mainstream group/class. However, all countries can apply one of three agreed proxies that provide an approximation to this benchmark:
- Placement in a mainstream class implies over 80% or more
- Data is available on the number of hours of support allocated to a child/learner
- Placement in a mainstream class implies over 50% or more.
In the EASIE data collection, the agreed operational definition is:
An official decision leads to a child/learner being recognised as eligible for additional educational support to meet their learning needs.
Countries may have different types of official decision, but for all official decisions:
- There has been some form of educational assessment procedure involving different people. This procedure may involve the child/learner, parents, school-based team members, as well as professionals from multi-disciplinary teams from outside the child’s/learner’s (pre-)school.
- There is some form of legal document (plan/programme, etc.) that describes the support the child/learner is eligible to receive, which is used as the basis for decision-making.
- There is some form of regular review process of the child/learner’s needs, progress and support.
The Swedish processes for reaching an official decision of special educational needs (SEN) match the operational definition in the EASIE data collection.
- There has been a form of educational assessment procedure involving different people. This procedure always involves the learner, guardians, school-based team members, and sometimes professionals from multi-disciplinary teams from outside the learner’s (pre-)school. The involvement depends on what kind of SEN decision is to be made.
- There is a specific form of legal document, an Action programme, describing the support the specific learner is entitled to receive, used as the basis for the decision-making. The Action programmes are used in mainstream schools, compulsory special needs schools, compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities, and in upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities. Decided actions are implemented either in the mainstream school or in another settlement. In some cases central municipality resource units are used. The primarily focus is that actions should take place among the learners’ peers by adjusting the learning environment. The Action programme is decided by the principal. If the decision implicates that special support must be given in a special teaching group, as individual teaching, in form of distance or other education or in form of an adapted study programme, the principal is not permitted to assign the decision-making to anyone else
- There is a regular review process linked to an Action programme. Each person responsible for an action set in an Action programme is to ensure that every action set decided on also is implemented, and must continuously assess whether their way of working is effective or whether it needs to be changed. At an agreed time, the school is obliged to evaluate how the Action programme has succeeded. It is not regulated how this evaluation is to be made, but the learners and their guardians should be given an opportunity to participate in the evaluation.
The EASIE definition of decision in the case of Sweden applies to learners attending a compulsory special needs school, a compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, an upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities, and learners in a mainstream school which has an Action programme. However, there is no data available for upper-secondary school regarding action programmes, individual teaching, special teaching groups, and/or adapted study programmes.
Sometimes learners in the compulsory special needs schools, learners in the compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities, and learners in the upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities also have Action programmes, but in this definition learners in these schools are included regardless of Action programmes. Since school year 2018/19 Sweden reports compiled data on learners with Action programmes, individual teaching, special teaching group, and/or adapted study programmes in compulsory mainstream schools. Before 2018/19, data merely accounts for placement. This affects the comparability over time.
The data on learners in the compulsory mainstream school with an official decision of SEN includes all learners with an Action programme as well as learners with individual teaching, special teaching group, and/or adapted study programme, even if an Action programme has not been registered. This procedure relates to the reported data since school year 2019/20 due to the fact that all learners with interventions according to the Education Act (2010:800) should have an Action programme. In pre-school class the learners only receive Action programmes.
Since school year 2021/22 the national register of school units distinguishes schools with limited admission to pupils with special educational needs (usually called ‘special support schools’). The pupils in these school units are consequently from now on reported outside mainstream in the data template.
Learners in compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities can receive education in compulsory school if the concerned principals agree on this and the learners’ guardians allow it. This means that there are learners received in compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities who receive their teaching in a mainstream class. These learners are called ‘integrated learners’. For learners who receive their education in another type of school because of this, the regulations concerning the original type of school apply.
Regarding upper-secondary school and upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities, there is no regulation in the Education Act that supports the possibility of integration. However, collaboration between these types of schools is also possible.
The municipality where the learner lives is responsible for learners’ school attendance and for the educational assessment procedure when it comes to attending a compulsory school, or when it comes to attending upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The assessment involves medical, social, psychological and pedagogical evaluation. Different specialists are involved in these different evaluations. This includes a licensed physician, a licensed psychologist, a social welfare officer, and SEN experts. The municipality makes the summarised decision.
To attend a compulsory special needs school, there is first an assessment to see if the learner belongs to the target group. The guardians provide medical and often also psychological journals to be presented to the specific decision-making body, which is the board of Admission within The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, SPSM. The board consists of different professionals from healthcare, social welfare and education.
The first step of the support process towards an official decision of an Action programme is called extra adjustments which are made by the teachers. If these adjustments are not considered sufficient for the learner, the concerned teacher informs the principal who conducts an educational screening and assessment to investigate if there are special educational needs. The principal usually involves the school health service. If necessary, the principal can call for external assessment, e.g. medical, psychologist, social welfare. If the learner needs specific educational support the decision is manifested in the Action programme where the different actions also are listed.
Regarding compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities, and compulsory special needs school, the guardians usually are the ones applying for their child to be received at the schools. The Action programme process may be initiated by the teacher, the principal or the guardians, but could be performed without the guardians’ involvement. However, in the Education Act there are strong recommendations to co-operate with the guardians. In all processes, there is a law-abiding obligation to listen to the learners and to consider what is best for the individual.
To be received in compulsory special needs schools there is a formal decision from a specific decision-making body, the board of Admission within The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, SPSM.
The responsible decision-maker in the municipality signs the official decision for attending Schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities. Usually, this decision also needs a written approval from the learner’s guardians. To receive supplementary support in compulsory special needs schools, in compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities, upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities, and in mainstream schools, the legal document is called the Action programme.
The Action programme describes the support the learner is entitled to receive. The first part of the Action programme states the need for special support. The second part of the Action programme lists the actions considered relevant. The actions must consider both the learner's need for special support and the learning goals in the curriculum or the learning requirements that should at least be achieved. The actions need to be concrete and evaluable, which means that the Action programme includes information on how and to what extent the learner will receive support. Each person responsible for support then ensures that the decided support is implemented, and continuously evaluates whether the actions are effective or need to be altered.
At an agreed time, the school shall evaluate if the Action programme has been effective. There is no regulation on how this evaluation should be made, but the learners and their guardians should be given an opportunity to participate in the evaluation.
The official decision of being received in a compulsory special needs school, a compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, or upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities follows a review that includes a pedagogical, psychological, medical and social assessment, according to the Educational Act.
In pre-school classes and in primary schools, screening tests are used to secure early interventions. The screenings are based on national mapping materials in the subjects Swedish or Swedish as a second language and mathematics.
There are also individual development planning and national tests. Learners in grade 3, 6, and 9 in compulsory school, or grades 4, 7 and 10 in special needs schools, are entitled to complete national tests in some subjects. (In upper-secondary education there are national tests in courses instead of grades.) The tests support teachers in the assessment of the pupils’ knowledge linked to the educational requirements in the curricula. The tests are constructed at universities on behalf of the National Agency for Education.
Within the frame of individual plans, national tests or whenever a need of support occurs, the teachers can make extra adjustments without any formal decisions or large screenings. This way the learner gets reviews more often, hence they do not have to wait for a process of official decision but this is linked to a possible decision later.
The Action programmes are formally submitted to review every year, or more often if needed. This is the responsibility of both teachers and the principal.
Within the EASIE data collection, specific questions examine children/learners who are out of education. This means children/learners who should, by law, be in some form of recognised education, but who are out of any form of recognised education. A recognised form of education is any type of education organised by or approved by any recognised educational provider in the public or private sector.
In Sweden all learners have access to mainstream compulsory school. It is normally a guardian’s choice not to attend a mainstream school. Guardians usually have to actively apply for access to a compulsory special needs school, a compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, or upper-secondary education for pupils with intellectual disabilities. Learners in compulsory education (ISCED 1 and 2) can attend schools with different curricula and different providers. The placement in mainstream school is regarded as a measure of access to inclusive education. This is one criterion that the Convention recommends. But it also highlights that at the societal level, a compulsory special needs school could be regarded as inclusive education because of the human right of communication.
Until 2018/19, placement in a mainstream class implied that the pupils with intellectual disabilities, educated according to the curriculum of the schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities, spent at least 50% in mainstream classes. This proxy hence indicated that the learners spent more time in mainstream settings than in segregated settings. However, from the school year 2019/20 the placement in a mainstream class among these learners is no longer measured in the amount of time spent in mainstream or segregated settings. Since then, the data provided for these learners only refers to occurrence of placement in mainstream classes. However, there is no corresponding national data available regarding upper-secondary schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities.
According to the Education Act, learners shall be present at school and participate in the activities the school arranges in order to get the intended education. The term absence, or out of school, is not specifically regulated. Thus, the school or the teacher decide, and usually report, if the learners have been present or absent. Unauthorised absence is defined as when guardians (or learners themselves from 18 years of age) do not inform or confirm the absence to the school.
In special cases, learners may be able to fulfil their school obligations outside the Swedish school system. It is called in the Education Act to ‘fulfil compulsory schooling in another way’. For such education to be allowed, there must be specific reasons. In 2021/22, 129 learners (ISCED 1 and ISCED 2) were permitted by their municipalities to fulfil their compulsory schooling in another way. The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools examines whether learners who go to or should have gone to compulsory special needs schools will be allowed to fulfil their compulsory schooling in another way.
Learners who are not cared for in hospital, but due to illness or similar reasons are unable to participate in mainstream school for a longer period of time, are entitled to special education at home or in another suitable place. Special education at home or in another suitable place is not part of the school system but constitutes a special form of education. In 2021/22, 228 learners (ISCED 1 and ISCED 2) had special education at home or in another suitable place.