Letter to the Norwegian Directorate of Education

Løvemammaene have sent a request to the Norwegian Directorate of Education (Udir) with a stated concern about the interpretation of the Education Act regarding children with special needs at upper secondary schools.

We are seriously concerned that children with complex, complex needs now appear to be at risk of losing their right to education!

Read the letter in full below. We are still waiting for a response from Udir.

Need for clarification of the intention of the new Education Act – risk of weakened right to education for students with complex challenges

Concern about the interpretation of the Education Act.

This autumn, Løvemammaene have received several inquiries from desperate parents and guardians of children in need of adaptation at upper secondary schools. The inquiries testify to a practice where upper secondary schools at county municipalities and the PP service for upper secondary education, in some cases, push children out of school and into health and care services, with reference to finances and the new Education Act. This applies to children who need individually adapted education (§ 11-6) in upper secondary school and/or personal assistance (§ 11-4). The result is that the county municipality offers reduced educational opportunities and students are transferred to day centers for adults in the municipality. The county municipality calls this alternative educational opportunities. We also have members with students who were rejected just before the start of upper secondary school this autumn and were not allowed to start upper secondary education.

The distinction between education and health care is not new, but we are now experiencing a change in practice where more and more of what was previously education is defined as health care, and then in the form of health and care services. It is the PPT and the school that define what is education and what is health care, and a distinction is made between what is considered «education» and what is considered «stimuli and maintenance». «Stimuli and maintenance» are considered by the county municipality and the PPT to fall outside the Education Act. For many children, maintaining skills, knowledge and competence is a central part of education, and crucial for the student’s further development.

Such an interpretation of the new law means that a large part of the education the student had in primary school and the old Education Act now falls outside the right to adapted education, with reference to municipal health and care services. This does not correspond, as Løvemammaene see it, with the Directorate of Education's guidance, which emphasizes that education can also include ADL training, communication, social learning and other measures that have an educational aim.

Common to the families who have contacted Løvemammaene is that the student has been transferred from school, or that it is proposed that the student be transferred out of high school by having him/her receive the educational offer at a municipal day center/activity center for adults. Furthermore, an educator affiliated with the high school meets the student at the day center to take care of the hours that the school and PPT consider to fall under education. We are talking about students who only receive 7-9 hours a week of education, the rest are considered to fall outside the Education Act.

Løvemammaene have received a letter sent from Rogaland County Council to the municipalities requesting dialogue to clarify the financial responsibility between health and care services and education for students in upper secondary education. The letter is attached.

The right to education and training is found in the Education Act, the Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in Article 24 of the CRPD. Pushing children with large, complex needs out of school and into health and care services based on financial considerations and narrow definitions of education is contrary to both Norwegian law, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the CRPD.

Such a practice, which we see the beginning of here, leads to children with large, complex needs risking losing the right to education. Løvemammaene believe that such an interpretation of the intention of the new Education Act will be critical for children and young people with complex needs and challenges who lose both the right to education and equal participation. Løvemammaene request the Norwegian Directorate of Education's interpretation of the intention of the new Education Act in the event of a need for adapted and adapted education.

Please contact us if anything is unclear, or if you need clarification or additional information.

With best regards
Løvemammaene