As stated in the letter, the cabinet intends to establish so-called parent and youth support centres as part of inclusive education. These independent support centres will inform parents and students, among other things, about the support available in their region and about their rights and obligations. These support centres should help reduce the number of students who do not attend school.
Absenteeism policy tightened
Wiersma wants schools to have effective absenteeism policies and insight into patterns of students’ attendance and absence. Truancy and being absent for a few days due to illness can already be a sign that a child may eventually drop out altogether. With the bill on Reducing Absenteeism, he is arranging for schools to record the total attendance and absence of their students from now on. At present, schools do not have to do this when children are absent for a valid reason, such as illness.
Digital distance learning
Some students are temporarily unable to attend school. To prevent them from dropping out, digital distance learning will be introduced. This will allow them to join lessons at their own school digitally or gain access to digitised lessons from other schools. In this way, students remain connected to school and the transition from home to the classroom becomes smaller.
Preventing dropouts
Vincent Fafieanie of the Netherlands Youth Institute emphasises that insight into attendance is important in order to provide support at an early stage and thus prevent absenteeism or dropping out. “It is important that the minister is introducing this approach because it contributes to a positive climate in schools and combats absenteeism and staying at home. It is also positive that the minister wants to offer every student some form of education when attending school is not possible. Digital distance learning is an important way of continuing to stimulate the educational development of children and young people.”