Appropriate Education Disputes Committee arouses dissatisfaction among parents
Parents are dissatisfied with the decisions of the Appropriate Education Disputes Committee. This is evident from a study by the Regioplan research institute released at the end of last week.
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According to the Regioplan report, 60 percent of parents believe that schools do not follow up on the committee's statements at all. The majority of schools themselves are of the opinion that this does happen (85 percent). According to the study, parents and schools also differ strongly on the question whether disputes have been resolved. 77 percent of schools indicate that disputes on which the committee has ruled have been at least partly resolved. Only 40 percent of parents agree.
Different school
Since 1 August 2014, the Appropriate Education Act obliges schools to offer children the support they need to find an educational place. If schools fail to do this, they must give good reasons and find another school for children. In the event of conflicts about the placement of their child, parents can go to the disputes committee.
The committee's statements do not lead to a better relationship between parents and schools.
The committee's statements do not lead to a better relationship between parents and schools. A web survey shows that in the vast majority of cases (92 percent), students who were involved in a dispute no longer attend school at the school with which they were in conflict. The regional partnership, of which schools are part, has often played an important mediating role in relocation to another school.
Regioplan believes that schools should actively involve the partnership at an early stage in resolving disputes between parents and schools. The disputes committee itself must formulate statements in its recommendations in a more explicit, clearer and less abstract way. Confusion often arises about this.
reaction AOb
Eugenie Stolk, primary education director of the daily AOb, thinks it is good that the role and functioning of the Disputes Committee for Appropriate Education are being examined. “It would be much better if the committee had less and less to do. Problems between parents and schools must be prevented as much as possible. "
The new government parties want to invest in the relationship between parents and school. "This is important. At the same time, we see that conflicts often arise from different expectations. The parent expects something from the school that the school cannot meet, or vice versa. This often concerns the question: what support can the school offer and which not. The AOb advocates a single national level of basic support. As soon as there is more clarity about what a school can and cannot offer, we expect fewer conflicts to arise. ”
