Enabling participation of children with special educational needs in inclusive education in the Netherlands

Including students with special needs in regular education has increasingly been in the focus of policy making of many countries the recent years. In the Netherlands, the wet passend onderwijs (act on inclusive education) will be released in august 2014 and it provides students with special educational needs with the opportunity to participate in regular education. However, participation in regular education may be more difficult for children with disabilities because they may experience limitations in their everyday life. Therefore, children with disabilities and special educational needs need more support in enabling participation. There is varying evidence about the effectiveness of inclusive education for students with special educational needs.It is not yet apparent which factors actually have a positive influence on the successful inclusion of students with special educational needs and how inclusive education can be implemented properly.This study intends to identify strategies and tools which are associated with successful participation of children with a disability in mainstream education in the view of different stakeholders.