Belgium (Flemish)
Country
Topic:
The working budget and the capital of teacher periods are put to the disposal of the school board by the central Government. There are no regional differences. The school board has a lot of freedom in using these resources.
1. Funding SEN in special schools
Due to the existence of different types of special education, there is a differentiation in the funding of special schools depending upon the type of special education they offer. Each of the 8 different types of special education on the level of basic education and the 4 educational forms in special secondary education have their own co-efficient for the conversion of the number of pupils of the specific type or educational form into a certain amount of capital periods. The co-efficient is most favourable for children with a visual or auditory disability.
In addition transport between home and school is free of charge for those pupils who attend the nearest special school where the type or educational provision the pupil needs is organised.
Currently, most additional resources for special educational needs are only available in the segregated situation of special schools. This is due to the choice made in 1970 to create a seperate system of special education to meet the needs of children with speical needs who were, at that time, mostly enrolled in mainstream schools. Since than initiatives have been taken to make resources available in mainstream education to improve the situation of pupils with special educational needs.
2. Funding SEN in mainstream schools
In 1980, integrated education (geïntegreerd onderwijs) started on an experimental basis. At the present time, it is considered as a form of collaboration between mainstream and special education. Within this framework, additional resources are made available to enable pupils with a disability and/or learning or educational difficulties to participate in courses and activities in a mainstream school, temporarily or permanently, for all or a part of the lessons and activities with the help of a special school.
Disabled children who are entitled to special education can benefit from additional hours off support by teachers or therapists from a special school.
The Flemish government also pays for the technical equipment and adapted school materials pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools need (eg. Braille for visually impaired pupils).
The resources for integrated education are only a fraction of these made available to special schools. In this, the way special needs education is financed works as a barrier to integration and that factor has to be reconsidered.
The systems of financing as described until now are open-ended. Increasingly, the Government is introducing, on an experimental basis, forms of conditional financing. This is the case in the recent programmes in mainstream primary and secondary education concerning the educational priority policy (for immigrant youngsters) and the policy of extending care that aims at the problem of those who are falling behind in their education (underprivileged nationals). With these programmes the Government wants to encourage schools to increase their attention to differences between pupils with regard to learning possibilities.
In both projects the financing is conditional. This means that schools only receive additional means on the basis of a clear project approach for these target groups. First of all the school has to prove that there is a substantial number of children belonging to the target group present in the school. In addition the school-team has to work out an action plan related to the project priorities determined by the Government. Each year the inspectorate makes an evaluation of the execution of the action plan. Because of a lack of funds, not all the schools can participate.
Within the framework of the programme of extending care, co-operation with a special school is made possible (with the exchange of capital periods between the mainstream and the special school). The aim is to exchange expertise and to support the enhancement of the competence of classroom teachers and the school in dealing with pupils with special educational needs. Some experimental projects have been established as well.
To conclude, it should be mentioned that the Welfare and Health Department finances semi-residential and residential care and other therapeutic services. In the main, children and youngsters with severe and multiple handicaps benefit from it. In the case of a co-operation between a special school and these services, therapeutic personnel, paid for by the Welfare and Health Department work during school-time with pupils from the school.