Integration
in The Netherlands
Loek Mak-Peters and Mieke van Waaijenburg
Principles:
• Proximity
• Normalisation
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Midden Nederland
The balance:
• Mainstream education whenever
possible
• Special education if and when
necessary
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Midden Nederland
New Legislation 1998
• Primary School Act (WPO)
• Secondary School Act (WVO)
• Act on Centers of Expertise (WEC)
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Midden Nederland
Centers of Expertise
– Cluster 1: visual impairment
– Cluster 2: auditory impairment, severe
language and communication problems
– Cluster 3: physically handicapped
children, multicomplex problems
– Cluster 4: psychiatric disorders and
severe behaviour problems
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Midden Nederland
The tasks of a center of
expertise
• To provide education
• To provide peripatetic teachers
• To develop knowledge in their field of
expertise
• Diagnostic services
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Midden Nederland
Cluster 4
• What is the basis for a “statement” in
cluster 4?
– A diagnosis according to DSM IV; or
– Six months of therapy from a healthcare
institution;
– Problems in the following areas:
– School;
– Home;
– Leisure time.
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Midden Nederland
“The Backpack-principle”
• If “statemented” a pupil in primary
education, secondary education has a
choice:
– Special Education
or
– Mainstream Education in combination with a
so-called “backpack”
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Midden Nederland
Peripatetic services
• To help and support schools from the
perspective of the special needs pupil
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Midden Nederland
Mainstream schools
• Draw up an Individual Education Plan
(IEP)
• Parents have to agree with measures
taken and the way the money is spent
• It is an agreement for one academic year
• It is an agreement between parents and
the mainstream school
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Midden Nederland
The peripatetic teacher
• Draws up the Supportplan i.e. the
agreement on what help the school
wants, where, when, how often a
peripatetic teachers drops in
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Midden Nederland
What activities e.g
• Class – room visits;
• Conversations with teachers on how to
adapt learning, teaching and environment;
• Teacher’s courses;
• Workshops;
• Procedures to obtain a statement;
• Evaluative talks with teachers and parents
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Midden Nederland
Newer developments
• Mainstream schools combine a
number of pupils with a backpack to
give the extra aid in a separate
class-room in their school
• Mainstream schools choose to
specialize in one particular group of
special needs pupils
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Midden Nederland
Inclusion
• Ideology, fashion, money-matter
or
• An attempt to give a child a happy,
friendly and stimulating environment
in which it is accepted for itself and
which tends to its particular needs.
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Midden Nederland