The procedure

As and when the information received from school depicts your child's educational needs adequately, the application is complete and the  the assessment starts. We can take up to 8 weeks to assess whether or not we issue a declaration of admissibility. If necessary, this period can be extended.

A social expert (your contact person) and an educational advisor (psychologist or remedial educationalist) are involved in the assessment of a declaration of admissibility (toelaatbaarheidsverklaring, TLV). They will collect additional information about your child and, together with their team leader, compose an advice on the type of education that best suits your child.

If there is any doubt about what is the best type of school for your child, our experts will call in three external experts; these are people who work at the special (primary) education schools in Amsterdam.

On the basis of the experts' advice, the director-governor decides whether the pupil is admissible to special education or special primary education and issues a declaration of admissibility (or not).

Two experts assess your child's application. An educational advisor (i.e. a psychologist or remedial educationalist) keeps in touch with the school. A social expert is your contact person.

The experts will always talk to you and the school. Sometimes they also speak to other people involved, such as a football trainer or counsellor. Or they observe your child in the classroom. Of course, this only happens with your permission, and if more information is needed.

If the experts have a good picture of your child’s educational needs, they will formulate an advice about the most suitable type of education for your child. They will indicate which declaration of admissibility (TLV) is appropriate. In a conversation with you, they will tell you more about this advice. Sometimes school is part of this conversation, in other cases school is informed separately. The social expert and the educational advisor draw up a report - we call it expert advice (deskundigenadvies) - in which they explain the advice.

If an educational setting other than regular education is the advice, the director-governor of het Samenwerkingsverband decides whether or not to issue the TLV.

You will receive the declaration of admissibility (TLV) and the expert advice. The school also receives these. With the TLV, you can register your child at the school that best suits your child.

Our experts assess what is the most suitable type of education for your child. They do this with the pupil file we received from the school and all the information they collected afterwards. They don't just give advice. They always think about different factors. We call them considerations (see here).

They look at your child and his environment and always relate these to each other. They influence each other: the environment has a major influence on what a pupil shows at school.

When the experts look at your child, they assess, for example, how your child's  attitude is towards work, whether your child can learn well, can concentrate, how he behaves and how he feels. We call these pupil factors.

If they look at the environmental factors, they look at everything around your child. For example, they look at how things go at home, or during sports.

They take a good look at the relationship between your child and his environment to answer the following questions:
- What does the child require from his environment?
- Could the environment meet your child's needs?

In this way, they come to your child's educational needs - what your child needs at school. On this basis, the experts indicate which type of education best suits your child's educational needs.

No. If it is important that research takes place, then it is up to the school and you to arrange this before school applies for a declaration of admissibility (toelaatbaarheidsverklaring, TLV)?.

We do not so much assess the quality of the support deployed, but rather whether that support was appropriate to the challenges your child experienced at school. The better the help is connected to the challenges, the better insight is gained into what your child needs in order to be able to develop well at school.