PPT

Pedagogical-psychological service, also called PPT, will help kindergartens and schools in a municipality to make arrangements for children and young people. The purpose is that they receive an inclusive, equal and adapted educational offer. For upper secondary schools, there is the county's PPT and Follow-up service.

PPT collaborates with nurseries and schools both at system level (generally, entire grades and classes) on early intervention, prevention and facilitation, and at individual level (around one child). It's the student's need for help (functional level and individual prerequisites), and not diagnosis, which is decisive for the assessment.

Examples of need for help can be

• concentration difficulties
• social and emotional difficulties
• challenging behaviour
• vision and hearing difficulties
• language and speech difficulties
• general learning difficulties or subject difficulties
• reading and writing difficulties
• math difficulties
• nonverbal learning disabilities
• severe absence from school
• sensory difficulties

PPT often collaborates interdisciplinary at local level, e.g. by participating in responsibility group meetings, with the health service or the child protection service, and at state level with e.g. by guidance from Statped or in collaboration with psychiatric services such as BUP.

How to get help

It is the school or nursery school, in consultation with the parents, who usually refer the child to PPT.

If you are worried about your child's development, we recommend talking to the nursery/school about this. As parents, you can demand that the school investigate whether the child needs special education, and that the nursery investigate whether the child needs special educational help or adaptation related to functional variation. 

It is a good idea to be outside well in advance of the start of kindergarten and school, before transitions between primary school and secondary school and to upper secondary education. 

What can PPT help with?

PPT can investigate children and young people, and observe in school or kindergarten, so that they can form a picture of and assess the needs for provision. Such an assessment is prepared into a document called expert assessment. An expert assessment clarifies needs and gives a recommendation on arrangements and resources in the nursery school/school for the right to special educational help or special education. 

PPT must ensure that an expert assessment is prepared where the law requires it. This means that children and young people who need support and facilitation in order to benefit from nursery school and school are entitled to it.

The Training Act also requires expert assessment in a number of other cases, including when there is a need to assess:

• early or delayed school start
• full or partial exemption from the education obligation (this is a section that can only be used with the consent of parents and/or pupils over the age of 15, and must only be used when it is in the pupil's best interest). 
• need for sign language training
• need for Braille training for blind and severely visually impaired students
• expert assessment when applying for admission to an education program in upper secondary school on a special basis

Investigation

How the assessment takes place varies based on the challenges and needs the child has. This will often involve observations in kindergarten/school, various tests to assess abilities and language, conversations with the child and parents, and possibly agencies involved. An adviser from PPT carries out the investigation and writes an expert assessment. The adviser can also make use of other expertise such as e.g. speech therapist, to get the best possible basis for the expert assessment.

You are entitled to an expert assessment prepared by professionals with sufficient competence. It must also contain clear and understandable language, and be completed within a reasonable time. PPT is an independent and independent service, and their recommendations must not be influenced by financial considerations. 

Expert assessment in the kindergarten

In the expert assessment, the following must be investigated and a position taken:

• whether the child has delayed development or learning difficulties
• realistic goals for the child's development and learning
• whether the child's needs can be remedied within the ordinary nursery school offer
• what type of help and organization will contribute to the child's development and learning
• what extent of special educational help is necessary, and what competence those providing the help should have

Expert assessment in school

In the expert assessment, the following must be investigated and a position taken:

• the pupil's benefit from the ordinary education offer
• learning difficulties in the student and other special conditions that are important for the training
• realistic educational goals for the student
• whether support can be provided for the difficulties the student has within the ordinary education provision
• which training provides a proper training offer

Resolution

The municipality or county council makes what are called individual decisions on special educational help in kindergartens and for special education in schools. The expert assessment is advisory for the municipality. It is also used as a basis for an individual decision. If the decision deviates from the expert assessment, this must be justified in the decision.

A single decision should say something about:

• contents (what kind of training offer, deviation from
  the curriculum body; including competence targets and hours, which subjects the deviation shall apply to, exemption from assessment with grade and application of full or partial exemption from compulsory education)
• scope (number of annual hours stated in various subjects or areas such as social competence, ADL training or work process)
• organization (in the class/group, small group, as one-on-one teaching, or alternative training arena outside the school)
• competence with the staff (teacher, special education teacher, speech therapist, assistant/environmental worker)
• offer about parental guidance in kindergarten

Single decisions will most often have procedural errors if:

• it only covers the scope of special education
• does not assess which training provision the student should have
• does not say anything about the organization of the training, in which subjects the student needs special adaptation or what content the training offer should contain

According to the law, the offer of special educational help in kindergarten and special education in school must, as far as possible, be designed in collaboration with the child and the child's parents, and great importance must be placed on their views. Parents and pupils over the age of 15 have the right to refuse a recommendation for special education. 

For children who receive special education, an individual education plan must be drawn up by the school. The plan must contain the aims and content of the training, as well as how it will be run.

Once a year, a written evaluation of the special educational teaching the child has received must be prepared, with an assessment of the child's development. The evaluation must be based on overall goals and sub-goals from the individual training plan, how the goals have been worked on, and conclude with whether the goals have been achieved in whole or in part, or not at all. The parents must receive a copy of the report.

Complaint possibilities

If you believe that PPT has made a mistake, or you are not satisfied with the expert assessment, you unfortunately cannot formally complain about it. It is the individual decision that the school makes on the basis of expert assessment, which gives you the right to appeal. 

What you can do is ask for a meeting with the PPT where you explain what you do not agree with, or what you think is missing, and hope to be heard. Before the expert assessment is finalised, you as a parent and pupils over the age of 15 must have this to read through. In the expert assessment, the guardian's information in the case must come to light, and the pupil's voice must be given great weight. The complaint is sent to the school and possibly further to The State Administrator.

Good to know

• The parents (or the student) must give consent before a referral is sent to PPT for expert assessment
• It is not essential to have a diagnosis to get help
• If free transportation is necessary for the child to be able to receive special educational help, the child is entitled to such transportation
• You have the right to obtain an alternative expert assessment if you are not satisfied
• If the child moves to another municipality, the decision on special educational assistance shall apply until a new decision is made in the case
• Many municipalities have their own supervisors for follow-up of serious school absences (referred to in some places as school refusal)

Legislation and guidelines

The PP service's mandate is regulated in Education Act § 5-6 and Section 31 of the Kindergarten Act

The Education Act (for primary and secondary school)

Excerpt from the Education Act
Section 5-1.Right to special education

"Students who do not have or who cannot get satisfactory benefits from the ordinary education offer, have the right to special education.

In the assessment of what kind of training offer is to be given, particular emphasis must be placed on the development prospects of the student. The training offer must have such content that the overall offer can give the student a reasonable benefit from the training in relation to other students and in relation to the educational goals that are realistic for the student. Pupils who receive special education must have the same total teaching hours as apply to other pupils, cf. § 2-2 and § 3-2."

§ 5-4. More details on the proceedings in connection with decisions on special education

"The student or the student's parents can demand that the school carry out the investigations that are necessary to find out whether the student needs special education, and possibly what education the student needs. The teaching staff must assess whether a pupil needs special education, and report to the headmaster when such needs are present. The school must have assessed and possibly tried out measures within the ordinary education offer with the aim of giving the pupil satisfactory results before an expert assessment is made."

Kindergarten Act

Regulations on responsibility for special educational help for children in kindergarten

The supervisor in special educational support

The supervisor in special education
6.7 The parents' right to obtain an alternative assessment from an expert

"The parents or the student can obtain an alternative assessment from an expert in addition to the one prepared by the PP service. If this is done, the alternative assessment from the expert must be assessed when the school makes individual decisions about special education. This assessment is part of the case's documents. The parents themselves have to pay for this alternative assessment.”

The transition between kindergarten and school

Start in kindergarten and school

Tutor - facilitation for children and pupils with great learning potential