The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) provides a budget to combat educational arrears in secondary education (VO). Currently, this budget is distributed based on the percentage of students in a branch that live in the APC area. However, living in the APC area is a fairly rough predictor of the potential for educational disadvantage. So the OCW is looking for a better allocation key.

Statistics Netherlands previously developed a model to calculate the risk of educational disadvantage for each pupil. For this purpose, several characteristics are examined (educational level and parental origin, how long the mother has lived in the Netherlands and whether the parents are going through debt restructuring). This model provides a better explanation for the chance of educational disadvantage than the area in which the students live.

OCW is not funded at the level of students, but at the level of educational institutions. Therefore, the chances of educational deprivation for the pupils in the branch must be added so that the degree of deprivation can be calculated for each branch. The budget can then be allocated based on the degrees of these arrears. This addition can be done in several ways. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has to make several policy choices. Statistics Netherlands has determined the impact of different options on (re)distributing the budget.

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has decided to fund practical (professional) education separately when it comes to distributing the budget to combat educational arrears. This report describes the development and details of the new Distribution Key for Professionals. The OCW aims to implement this new distribution switch in 2024.