Primary school application policy

Municipality of Utrecht

We want children to get the right kind of primary education in Utrecht. It is therefore important to ensure that the registration of children at primary schools is done in a weighted and fair way for all children. We do this by applying an algorithm in which the municipality plays a directing role.

Last change on 12th of July 2024, at 10:04 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA, ...
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Education and Science

Begin date

-

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

Providing the right form of basic education to children in a weighted and fair manner

Considerations

Results Uthiek Assessment: with the enrolment policy for children in primary schools, we increase chances of good education for all children in Utrecht. This contributes to the value Justice in several ways. Young children are a relatively vulnerable target group. In the old situation, without this registration policy, there is a risk that:

- children are refused at the preferred school, possibly on unfounded grounds

- it cannot be excluded that children are refused at a primary school on the basis of discrimination and/or ethnic profiling

- children with a language deficiency have no guarantee that there is an appropriate primary school that meets their learning needs

- there can be unjustified overcrowding of waiting lists at primary schools, because parents register their children at several schools at the same time at an early stage

With this registration policy for children at primary schools, we prevent these negative side effects and guarantee good quality primary education for everyone in Utrecht in a weighted and fair way. The value Autonomy is affected for parents, who previously could register their child at all primary schools. With this registration policy, there is less freedom of choice for parents in the first instance, but a conversation between the parents and the preferred school determines whether or not the child goes to that school. The value Power relations is important in the relationship between municipality, schools and parents. With this registration policy, the municipality fulfils an active and directing role with regard to primary education in Utrecht.

Human intervention

The algorithm (with direct impact on Utrecht residents and their living environment) only serves as a source of information for an employee, who takes the right follow-up step based on this information and the context of the situation. This principle is included in our Utrecht framework Internal Guidelines for Algorithm Application.

Risk management

The Utrecht data scientists, Information and Process Advisors (IPA) and Decentralised Information Security Officers (DISO) within the Utrecht municipality have a controlling and monitoring role in the application of the algorithm, in addition to the employees directly involved. By doing so, we want to prevent the following risks from occurring:

- data leak by making personal data of Utrecht residents publicly available

- algorithm takes a decision completely independently, without the intervention of an employee and without interpreting the relevant context of the situation

- 'function creep' regarding data when applying the algorithm, causing the algorithm to give a distorted picture of what is going on. This can occur because the same type of data is used when applying the algorithm, and the algorithm uses that as confirmation of what comes out as information

Impact assessment

• Utrechts Uthiek Assessment
• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)

Operations

Data

- overview of primary schools in Utrecht

- details of completed questionnaire (by parents) regarding the educational needs of the child

- data of children such as date of birth, address and family composition