Response to interpellation 2024/25:226 on students' protection against school closures on short notice
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L believes that the current rules for independent schools are deficient and that the government is working to combat unserious actors 1. L argues that investigations should propose requirements for long-term ownership, financial guarantees, and strengthened supervision 1. L emphasizes that students with neuropsychiatric diagnoses need better resource schools and smaller teaching groups 2. L argues that the idea of inclusion has led to exclusion and that the government is investing in state grants for special education teachers. L believes that it is urgent that students receive a good education 3 and that the deficiencies must be addressed through increased state regulation 3. S believes that the profit interest is the root of the problem 4. S demands a "lex Kajan" to prevent schools from being closed on short notice 5. S believes that the school system has hit a wall 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Gustaf Lantz has asked me if I and the government intend to take any measures to ensure that students are not affected by school closures motivated by profitability requirements at short notice, and if so, when.
To begin with, I want to emphasize that all children and students should receive a good and secure start in life. There are problems with the current rules for independent schools. We shall combat a lack of equality, and the government considers that unserious and unsuitable actors should not occur within the school system.
That is why the government has added supplementary directives to the Inquiry on profit in schools. The investigator shall, among other things, propose how requirements for long-term ownership, which means that students' right to a coherent education is guaranteed, and a clearer protection for students' schooling through requirements for financial guarantees can be introduced. This could, for example, involve requirements for bank guarantees, so that students' schooling is not risked if a principal of a school falls into financial distress. The inquiry shall also lead to proposals for a broadened and deepened supervision and strengthened opportunities for the School Inspectorate and the municipalities to intervene. Proposals shall be submitted on increased penalty amounts and a system of sanction fees for both municipal and independent schools as a complement to penalties.
The government has also begun a complete renovation of the school financing system with the aim of increasing equality in Swedish schools across the country through state steering of the funding. As part of this work, the government has appointed the Inquiry on a national school funding norm for increased equality (U 2023:05). It is to propose a system for resource distribution based on a nationally binding school funding norm.
Today, there are large differences in how much different municipalities invest in schools, and there is a clear need to change the regulations regarding how resources should be allocated to independent schools. Municipal and independent schools have different responsibilities, and this needs to be reflected in a reasonable and justified way in the resource distribution.
The government is investing heavily in schools and is closely following the economic development. The state contributes to the school's funding, but it is important to remember that it is the municipalities that have the primary responsibility for financing and operating preschool and school.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
We are not many here in the chamber today. I have a friend, and the Minister has a friend. That is roughly how it looks, and people who watch the Riksdag sometimes via the web become horrified and think: Are they doing nothing, the members of parliament? I would say that it is quite nice that there are not so many here today, because I hope and believe that my colleagues are out in the country and meeting reality.
It can also be so that sometimes we invite people to the Riksdag. I did this last week. In that case, it concerned a parent group from a school in Uppsala called Kajan, which is going to be closed down. The parents were informed of this only six weeks before the education was to cease. Their children often have autism, ADHD, or other neuropsychiatric diagnoses. This is a school that offers special support to these students.
Life was turned upside down. The parents organized themselves with the kind of strength that only truly appears when parents feel that their children are threatened. They began leafing through law books and searching for rules. Can it really be that one is allowed to dismiss students on such short notice? They searched but found nothing, and the simple reason is that there are no rules that make this illegal.
I can only observe how we make distinctions between people in Swedish legislation. Take, for example, the student who wants to terminate their student room! There are rules regarding a three-month notice period. But students with special needs, for example children with autism, who are particularly sensitive to major life transitions, allow our school system to treat them in this way.
This cannot be seen as teething problems in a piece of legislation. This has been the school system we have had for 30 years. These are, so to speak, chronic diseases in a system that must be changed.
There are several different ways to do this. We can address each individual issue as it arises. We can enact laws stating that funds must be deposited so that there is money, so that someone else can continue to run the school. We can have rules for notice periods that cover an entire education. There are many ways. But I believe that this is a patching and mending that risks being constantly challenged by the pursuit of profit, because that is where the root of the problem lies. There are actors who are constantly looking for loopholes to maximize profit. We have time and again seen examples of this.
In this case, Aprendere had the opportunity to inform the students well in advance of the closure. But they did not do so, because they wanted to make money. They were afraid that students would find another school to attend and take the school fees with them. In the trade-off between autistic students' need for long-term planning and the shareholders' short-term interest in profit, it was the shareholders who came out ahead.
I want to ask two questions to the Minister. Does the Minister think that six weeks is too little to dismiss students from their education? If she thinks so, when is she then prepared to do something about the matter?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! No, this is not reasonable. That is also why this inquiry into independent schools has been tasked with reviewing the regulatory framework regarding how long an entity can operate; for example, there must be sufficient financial strength to be able to run the operation in the long term. I believe that is important. The mandate also includes proposing a comprehensive right for students to complete parts of their education. Today, this right does not exist, and it does not matter whether it is a municipal or an independent school. A municipality can also close a school with a few weeks' notice, and that has also, of course, happened off and on. Often it is because one simply has too few students. Strengthening students' rights in the independent school system is enormously important. Large parts of the inquiry are about exactly that.
When it comes to resource schools, it is a bit special. The resource schools cannot live on school funding alone. The students who attend there often have very extensive needs for special support. Therefore, a part of the directive to the investigation concerns the national school funding norm precisely about that. How should the regulatory framework for independent resource schools be ensured?
It does not only concern independent schools. We must have a system that guarantees that there are resource schools in Sweden. It looks incredibly different in Sweden. In some municipalities, they do not exist at all.
I have met so many parents over the years who have truly had to fight for their students. We have had a system where we have talked about inclusion and that all these students should be included in the regular school system. Unfortunately, it has often led to an exclusion.
Children with autism have, for example, been left sitting in a classroom or, in the worst cases, in a corridor with an untrained twenty-year-old because the school is not capable of ensuring that there is staff with the necessary knowledge and that students are placed in a sufficiently small group.
This must be ensured both in the independent resource schools and in the municipal school system. It is a matter of us achieving more small teaching groups and that we employ more special education teachers so that those students who have neuropsychiatric diagnoses receive a significantly better schooling than they have today.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister points out that parents are forced to fight for their children. As I wish they could avoid this and that parents could be parents and provide support and that the school functioned. It is, just as the Minister says, often about the students who have the greatest problems. It is their parents, who also have great challenges in making the family function, who are forced to put on their gloves and fight for their children.
I think we should listen to those parents. I can only state that when it comes to Aprenderes actions, the school had not sought additional funds. There were certain criteria that were perhaps considered too costly, and there was a desire to shut down. It is a very vulnerable system we have.
Now we are discussing notice periods and the situation in Uppsala at Kajan. But there are many examples throughout the years. We are talking about grade inflation and how people trick the system to opt out students so that they do not come to a school because one realizes that it would cost too much. There are so many situations where the school system has proven to be toothless and deficient. It is high time that we do something about this.
We members of Parliament unfortunately are not allowed to lend out our seat in the Riksdag. I would have gladly done so today. When I met the parents from Kajan, I saw a commitment that I wish had taken the place here instead of me. I am sure that they would have presented their case even better and that it would have increased the understanding even more.
Now they have had the opportunity to meet the Education Committee, and that is good. But I still want to convey a plea to the Minister to take an interest in the case we now have in Uppsala. I am sure that the parents' group would be interested in meeting the Minister.
I believe that the Minister, in his important work of reforming the Swedish school system, would have great benefit and utility from meeting them. I hope that I receive an affirmative answer to that question. I will gladly convey it to the parents from Kajan.
In conclusion, I have a plea that this should not take too long. Of course, things must be investigated. But we must not forget that a upbringing is short and a childhood is short, and traumas leave a mark.
It is even the case that parents have expressed concern that some of the 54 children who are currently not considered profitable in a group making million-dollar profits will not be able to cope with the transition and the announcement and will simply take their own lives. These are matters of life and death, literally. I hope that the Minister feels that time pressure.
I can state that some things move quickly. When the ban was abolished, there was a referral to the Council on Legislation already in place on January 12. I would think these are much more pressing issues. I wait with excitement and anticipation to see concrete legislative proposals that ensure that profit interests do not come at the expense of the students' well-being in the future.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! We must do significantly more for students who have different types of neuropsychiatric functional impairments than the Swedish school system has done in recent years. We have had an inclusion mindset which, in my opinion, has led to exclusion. In that case, one must work on two different fronts, I believe.
It is about changing the regulatory systems. It concerns the free school inquiry but also the inquiry on the national school fee norm. But we have also appointed an inquiry on student health. It is about, for example, knowing which professional categories shall be included in student health and that one cannot opt out of it and so on.
The second way one can go is through different types of government grants. In that case, the government has introduced government grants for, for example, smaller special teaching groups. We are now seeing how it is being expanded across the entire country. It is moving from it having been almost completely unacceptable to have smaller teaching groups for the students who need it the most, to it now being expanded in the vast majority of municipalities.
I think it is good, and it is welcome. But we must also review the possibility of obtaining reasonable funding for the resource schools. It also looks very different across the country. Added to that are state grants to educate and employ more special education teachers. We need that. Specially trained teachers who are good and skilled at teaching students with large special needs were needed.
It was also a professional category that was almost facing extinction precisely because it was desired that these students should be included in completely ordinary classrooms with perhaps 30 classmates. Each one of us who has visited resource schools, and I have visited many over the years, understands that it is very difficult.
Many major changes are needed in this area so that these students receive exactly the same right to education as all other students in Sweden have. That has not been the case, I can say.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister raised the issue of resources for schools. It is important to remind [the House] of the government's priorities when it comes to tax cuts for those with the highest incomes and what is allocated to municipalities and regions in a time where cost developments have been galloping.
It means that for many municipalities, they are now reviewing their budgets and seeing where they must save. Unfortunately, we have often seen that in the municipalities it is not uncommon for the school to take a large part of the blow, and ultimately it is the students who need the most support.
I noted that the Minister did not quite take the invitation. The parents from Kajan with their commitment are worthy of meeting the Minister and a representative for the government. It is so serious that students can happen to experience this. I think they should be allowed to come and tell about their matter.
In conclusion, I do not think I am really getting an answer on how the Minister views profit as a driver for providing education for students and students with special needs. During these 30 years, we have repeatedly seen serious deficiencies where students have been squeezed.
We can regulate separately, patch and repair, and ban what is to come. We definitely need a lex Kajan that ensures that autistic children are not notified six weeks before the school is to be closed, even though the decision was made much earlier, in order to maximize the school funding. It cannot happen again.
It feels a bit like a relationship. If someone is unfaithful time and again, it is impossible to set prohibitions on the person not being allowed to go out in the evening and not doing that and that. The trust and confidence are not there, and if the friskolor cannot handle this, then we must end this school system that has hit a wall.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! It is naturally incredibly important that students receive a good education, and this applies in particular to those students who have some form of neuropsychiatric functional impairment. It is simply quite a few in Sweden today who do not receive a sufficiently good education.
We must address this, partly through changes in the free school system, partly through other major changes. It is about increasing the regulation of Swedish school. It is unreasonable that 290 municipalities in Sweden can do a bit as they please when it comes to this issue. Resource schools do not even exist in all municipalities. It is still the case that students all over Sweden sit alone in the corridor with a student assistant, despite the fact that it does not work, because people refuse to establish special teaching groups for these students. We must, therefore, achieve a major change.
Of course, I am happy to meet with the parents at Kajan, but it is also important to remember that as a minister, I cannot interfere in individual cases. I really want to emphasize that over the years I have met many parents whose children have fared so poorly in the Swedish school system that it makes me think that we need to do something about this. But then we must increase the state regulation. It is unreasonable with such large differences as there actually are in Swedish schools today.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.