Ghent launched digital platform to help special needs students find a school

According to Elke Decruynaere, Alderman for Education, digital registration platforms help guarantee students get the education they need

Today, authorities in Ghent, Belgium, announced the launch of a new digital system that will allow parents to register children with special needs in schools for the 2022-2023 year. The move is aimed at alleviating some of the pressure put on the parents due to the fact that there is a fairly limited number of available free spots in schools.

Fiscally going to schools to register children creates more bottlenecks

According to a statement by the city, the demand for special schooling outpaces the needs of the local community, especially in the rural areas outside of Ghent itself. Thus, quite often due to a lack of space in the city’s special schooling programmers, parents are forced to seek education in neighbouring towns like Lokeren, Sint-Niklaas and Zele and a school in Beveren.

This forces them to double register their kids, which further diminishes the spaces for some while allowing others to pick and choose. Over the past, this has caused educational institutions to form waiting lists, increasing uncertainty for the families.

To avoid this, the schools in special primary education in Ghent have started to collaborate with those in neighbouring communities to create a joint registration platform for the 2022-2023 school year. On the platform parents can double-register as well. However, schools also share information, which allows them to better determine to whom to allocate the spots.

The procedure applies to all children who wish to enrol in special primary education regardless of age. The registration process will be open from today, until 6 May.

Elke Decruynaere, Alderman for Education, explained that this initiative was modelled after the one local authorities did with regular primary education. According to her, this approach had led to good results in mainstream primary education when it came to guaranteeing pupils a place at school.