Early childhood education

Municipality of Utrecht

Determining which children are eligible for Early Childhood Education (VE).

Last change on 12th of July 2024, at 9:05 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

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

General information

Theme

Health and Healthcare

Begin date

010717

End date

010324

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

We want to determine if and when Utrecht children qualify for Early Childhood Education (VE). So that they are offered the type of education they need. In doing so, we safeguard the healthy development of Utrecht children. And we contribute to Healthy Urban Living in Utrecht.

Considerations

Results Utrecht Uthics Assessment: with this analysis to determine children's eligibility for VE, we contribute directly to the Health value. We have ensured that data processing for this analysis takes place in a protected and secure environment. In doing so, we contribute to the values Privacy and Control of Technology. The results of this monitoring are interpreted by the youth nurse in conversation with the child's parents. This gives the parents information and a concrete action perspective regarding their child's development. This contributes to the value of Autonomy. In the follow-up steps, extra attention is paid to children with a relatively large backlog. This contributes to the value Justice.

In this process, since 1 March 2024, an algorithm is no longer applied, because we found that considering the context within this process was so important that the information generated (by applying the algorithm) no longer had any added value in the decision to take the right follow-up step.

Human intervention

The algorithm (with a direct impact on Utrecht residents and their living environment) always serves only as a source of information for an employee, who takes the appropriate next 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

For the following risks, we as Utrecht have organised safeguards and measures to prevent these risks from occurring: 1. data leak due to the public availability of personal data of Utrecht residents, 2. algorithm makes a decision completely independently, without the intervention of an employee and without the interpretation of the relevant context of the situation, 3. no monitoring in the application of the algorithm to the data, which can lead to 'function creep'. That is, the information gives a distorted picture of what is going on. This is because you use the same kind of data with the algorithm and the algorithm uses that as confirmation for what comes out as information.

Impact assessment

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

Operations

Data

In applying the algorithm, the following data are used regarding the child's situation to identify any language deficiency. And thus determine, with the corresponding context, whether a child qualifies for Early Childhood Education (VE):

- educational level of parents

- language environment of the child

- migration background of parents