“Sink Or Swim” Barriers for Children with Disabilities in the European School System

“Sink or Swim” Barriers for Children with Disabilities in the European School System

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

“Sink or Swim” Barriers for Children with Disabilities in the European School System

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DECEMBER 2018 ISBN: 978-1-6231-36840

“Sink or Swim” Barriers for Children with Disabilities in the European School System

Summary ...... 1

Methodology ...... 4

Background ...... 5

Barriers Facing Children with Disabilities in European Schools ...... 7 Exclusion and Pressure to Leave the School ...... 7 Inadequate Support and Lack of Systematic Accommodations ...... 9 Negative Attitudes and Harassment ...... 12 Lack of Flexibility in the Curriculum ...... 13 Lack of Awareness and Training ...... 15 Limited Alternatives and Private School Tuition Fees ...... 17

Recommendations ...... 20 To the Board of Governors of European Schools ...... 20 To the European Commission ...... 20 To the European Parliament ...... 21

Acknowledgments ...... 22

Summary

“My son knows every car brand. He has astonishing geographical memory. He knows two Mozart operas by heart. But special gifts like this are not regarded in schools, because they are not useful. If you are not among the 95 percent of children that develop normally in terms of reading, writing, calculating, you have a massive problem.” —Maria, the mother of a boy with an intellectual disability, October 2018

Maria works for a European Union institution. Her son Jonas is nine years old and has an intellectual disability. When he was four, she tried to enroll him in a European School, which children of EU staff have a right to attend for free. Their application was rejected three times. Jonas now attends a special school for children with intellectual disabilities.

European Schools, a network of 13 intergovernmental schools primarily teaching children of EU employees, do not do enough to accommodate the needs of children with disabilities. While the schools are paying increasing attention to inclusion, Human Rights Watch found that children with disabilities continued to be rejected, pressured into changing schools, or not provided with appropriate accommodations and support to allow them to learn and thrive in an inclusive environment.

European Schools are governed by the 28 EU member states and the European Commission. The EU and all of its member states have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which guarantees children with disabilities the right to inclusive education.

Based on interviews with 27 people between September and November 2018, this report documents the cases of 12 children and one young adult with a range of disabilities and found that despite states’ obligations under the convention, European Schools allow the exclusion of children on the basis of disability. Their Policy on the Provision of Educational Support states that “European Schools do not offer a fully inclusive education system…. [T]he school is entitled to declare itself unable to meet the needs of the pupil.”

These cases took place in five European Schools, but shed light on a number of structural issues in the European School system which also affect students in other European Schools.

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Nine parents interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported feeling pressured by school officials to remove their child from the school. In some cases, parents told us that they experienced harassment, with school officials repeatedly calling them in for meetings to hear complaints about their child’s challenging behavior or poor academic performance.

Claire, the mother a 16-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), explained: “There are two situations: either the children are thrown out, often because they are failing at school. Or they are isolated, not supported, until they decide to go themselves. It's ‘sink or swim’.” Claire, who ended up removing her son from the European School in 2015, said all but one of the children who were receiving educational support in her son’s class dropped out.

Louise, a 15-year-old girl who has dyslexia, also left the European School after struggling for years to get basic accommodations for her learning disability, such as the right to use a device to take pictures of the blackboard. “This school was like an anthill, every year they filtered the best to keep only the elite,” she said. “Those who are a little defective, they do everything they can to reject them. They wanted us to feel bad enough to leave on our own.”

Under the CRPD, children with disabilities have a right to individualized support measures and reasonable accommodations in school, including adapted teaching methods, material and program, the provision of assistive technology, and alternative examination formats. According to parents, such accommodations were not systematic and depended on the willingness of school staff.

“It wouldn't take a lot of effort,” said Claire. “These are marginal adjustments, not rocket science.”

Also, European Schools offer only one curriculum leading to the European Baccalaureate, which cannot be adapted to children with disabilities’ varying needs, strengths, challenges and learning styles. In one case, the director told the parents of a boy with learning disabilities that he could move on to secondary school but that he would never be able to catch up with the program and the school would be “limited to a sort of daycare.”

Currently, around 27,000 pupils are educated at the 13 European Schools in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy in 20 official EU languages. While there is no data on the number of pupils with disabilities, nearly four percent of the school population receive intensive support, targeting children who are determined by an expert

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assessment as having “special educational needs,” a large number of which are children with disabilities.

Depending on the language skills of the children, and the availability of alternative international and inclusive schools in the national school systems, children with disabilities who are rejected from European Schools may find themselves with limited options for schooling.

European institutions provide their employees co-funding for the enrollment of children with disabilities in private schools, where fees can be as high as €50,000 a year. Based on interviews with European Commission officials, Human Right Watch found that the European Commission, which has the largest staff of all EU institutions, is currently providing such funding to around 70 children, for a total budget over €1.5 million. Instead of investing in accommodating the needs of children with disabilities in European Schools, the EU is spending significant funds on private school education for these children.

Most parents interviewed for this report recognized that some teachers and assistants were doing their utmost to help their child and that attitudes were evolving positively. For example, one boy with a disability experienced a more inclusive environment after a new director and support coordinator were appointed to his school, after four years described by his mother as “pure hell” during which she was continuously pressured to remove him.

The situation of Adrian, a 17-year-old boy with autism, also dramatically improved after he moved from one European School to another. His first school frequently punished him for behavior linked to this disability; in the second one he was met with understanding and openness.

Although European School staff make adjustments, it should not depend on their good will whether to accommodate or not the needs of children with disabilities. European Schools should make a commitment to inclusive education in policy and practice, and back it up with adequate resources.

The Board of Governors of European Schools should adopt a policy on inclusive education, develop teacher training and introduce flexibility in the curriculum. The European Commission, which provides more than half of the European Schools’ budget, should lead the process and ensure its funding contributes to an inclusive system.

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Methodology

This report is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch between September 2018 and November 2018, in close collaboration with the European Disability Forum, an independent nongovernmental organization based in Brussels that represents Europeans with disabilities. The European Disability Forum provided expertise and advice.

Human Rights Watch documented the cases of 12 children and one young adult with a range of disabilities, who were enrolled in five European Schools (four in Brussels and one in Luxembourg), or whose enrollment application was refused. The cases investigated nonetheless shed light on a number of structural issues in the European School system which also affect students in other European Schools.

Human Rights Watch interviewed a total of 27 people in Brussels and Luxembourg for the report, including children, parents, school directors, support coordinators, inclusive education experts, the office of the European Ombudsman, officials of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security, and the deputy secretary-general of the European Schools. The interviews were conducted in English and French, either in person at homes, schools, public spaces or offices, or through video and phone calls. All cases took place since 2013. Out of the 13 students whose cases were documented, 12 were children of EU institutions’ employees.

Most children and parents are identified by pseudonyms in order to protect their privacy and confidentiality, unless they requested that their identity be revealed.

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Background

European Schools are intergovernmental schools primarily intended for children of employees of European institutions. They are considered public institutions, governed by an international convention and controlled jointly by the governments of EU member states a