Since the fifties of the past century, special needs education in the Netherlands developed into a wide-ranging system for students with special educational needs. The Dutch system for special education had in its hey-days a population comprising 4.5 per cent of all students in the Netherlands and distinguished 15 types of special schools. It was said that we had in effect, for every disability a separate school type.
This practice of referring students with special needs to segregated special schools became increasingly criticized. A first step towards integration was the Primary School Act of 1985. This Act stated that the major goal of primary schools is to offer appropriate instruction to all students aged 4 to 12, and to guarantee all students an uninterrupted school career. Ideally, each student would receive the instruction that fits his or her unique educational needs. However, in the years after 1985, the expansion of special education did not stop.

The educational system in the Netherlands is administered at a national level by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences. Although we have quite a history of segregated special education there is no separate department for special needs education. The government launched three policy programmes, all aimed at stimulating the integration of students with special needs.

 

In 1990, a government policy document, 'Together to School Again' (the so-called WSNS policy) intended to make a fresh start in integrating students with special needs. Under this policy, all primary schools and the special schools for learning disabled and mild mentally retarded students have been grouped into regional clusters. It resulted in mainstream and special schools working together; special needs co-ordinators being appointed in every mainstream school, launching of training programmes, passing new legislation, and in drawing up new regulations for funding of mainstream and special schools.

Under the new WSNS legislation the special schools for learning disabled and mild mentally retarded students became part of the regular school system. In 1995, parliament decided to change the funding system drastically: each of the 300 school clusters was to be funded equally, based on the total enrolment in primary education. Regions had to adapt their special education provision to the new funding structure. Some regions had to close special schools, especially in areas where there was a high degree of segregated provision compared to other regions, while other areas received additional funds as a reward for a regional effective integration policy.

For secondary schools offering education for students with learning difficulties and mild mentally retarded, a restructuring of mainstream secondary education and secondary special education was proposed in 1995. The idea was to rearrange the lower forms of mainstream secondary education and secondary special education into different instructional programmes. Next to these programmes an individual support structure was developed. This can be seen as the individual variant of each of the programmes, using a methodology, didactic and pedagogical approach more suited to the individual needs of students. Students not expected to obtain a certificate, even with considerable extra support, can attend the 'practical training' programme. This prepares them for low-skilled jobs.

This policy changed the legal status of parts of secondary special education. Secondary special education for students with learning difficulties and mild mentally retarded was no longer part of a separate special education law, but became an integral part of the new secondary education law.

In line with the integration policy for the elementary special schools - the WSNS policy - schools for secondary education and schools for secondary special education now work together in school clusters. The funding for the clusters is based on the total enrolment in this section of secondary education.

 

For the education of students with other types of special needs (sensory, physical, or mental impairments or behavioural problems) a separate line of policy development has been started. Until 2003, most of these students could only receive the support they need after admittance to a full-time special school. This financing mechanism (funding special schools on the basis of the number of children that are placed) was changed in favour of linking financing of special services to the student involved, regardless of the type of schooling. If a student meets the criteria for this so-called 'pupil-bound budget', parents and students can choose a school, special or mainstream, and take part in decision making on the best way to use the funds in order to meet the student's special needs.
Directly linked to the new funding system is a re-organisation of special (including secondary) education. The different school types have been re-organised into four so-called expertise centres: those for the visually impaired, those for students with communication disorders, those for physically and mentally impaired and those for students with behaviour problems.