Vertrouwen in de school: Over de uitval van ‘overbelaste’ jongeren

Schools must provide education to threatened dropouts, as well as all the social-emotional care and support needed to secure a place in society. Only in schools with such a broad range of tasks is there a real chance to prevent the most vulnerable young people from being completely excluded from society. The government should actively encourage schools and ROCs to offer this broader ‘plus package’. That writes the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) in its report to the government Trust in the school. About the dropout of ‘overloaded’ young people. In this report, the Council focuses on one category of (imminent) dropouts, namely ‘overloaded’ young people. These are young people who suffer from an accumulation of problems, ranging from limited skills and behavioral problems to broken families, poverty, debt or addiction. School dropout is often the prelude to general social dropout among these young people. On the basis of many discussions in the field and study of the domestic and foreign literature, the Council formulates recommendations in this report for effective prevention of early school leaving among these young people. The WRR’s central recommendation is that schools should offer these young people ‘structure’ and ‘connectedness’. The Council advocates a school that assumes a broader view of the task than just the transfer of knowledge and calls schools with such a broad social task definition ‘plus schools’. In this way, the school can develop into a safe haven that counteracts the chaos and risks in their lives.