One of the trends in education in Europe is an increasing focus on the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. However, students with SEN do not form a clearly defined group (Pijl, Frostad, & Flem, 2008). Moreover, percentages of students who are considered to have SEN differ between countries (Ferguson, 2008). A large-scale study in The Netherlands showed that according to primary school teachers, on average 26% of the pupils in their classes had special educational needs (Van der Veen, Smeets, & Derriks, 2010). In an earlier study in the UK a similar percentage had been found (Croll & Moses, 2003). In these studies the focus was not on the comparatively small group of pupils who are considered to have SEN according to official criteria, but on the whole range of SEN as estimated by teachers. These studies also showed large differences between teachers with respect to the percentage of pupils they considered to have SEN. This raises the question whether pupils are considered to be SEN pupils during all of their school career, and what relation can be established between their type of problems and their cognitive and social-emotional development.   

In the present study four research questions were addressed:

(1) What proportion of pupils in mainstream primary schools in The Netherlands have special educational needs according to their teachers and what kind of problems do these pupils have in opinion of their teachers?

(2) What proportion of pupils who are considered to have SEN are estimated as having SEN three years later as well and what proportion of pupils not estimated as having SEN are considered to have SEN three years later?

(3) What is the development in cognitive attainment of pupils with and pupils without SEN?

(4) What is the social-emotional development of pupils with and pupils without SEN?

Croll, P., & Moses, D. (2003). Special educational needs across two decades: Survey evidence from English primary schools. British Educational Research Journal, 29, 731-747. Ferguson, D.L. (2008). International trends in inclusive education: The continuing challenge to teach each one and everyone. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 23, 109–20. Pijl, S.J., Frostad, P., & Flem, A. (2008). The social position of pupils with special needs in regular schools. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52, 387–405. Pirrie, A., Head, G., & Brna, P. (2006). Mainstreaming pupils with special educational needs. Glasgow: The SCRE Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow. Van der Veen, I. Smeets, E., & Derriks, M. (2010). Children with special educational needs in the Netherlands: number, characteristics and school career, Educational Research, 52, 15-43.