Safeguarding international schools in the Netherlands: guide

A ministerial regulation, the Regeling aanwijzing internationale en buitenlandse scholen, covers international schools. A school counts as international if a body on the regulation's list has accredited it, or if the school is a candidate for accreditation.

The list includes the Council of International Schools (CIS), the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) and the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). It also names US bodies, such as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA).

The regulation gives the Dutch Inspectorate of Education a narrow task. It supervises Dutch-language teaching for pupils who hold Dutch nationality (Article 9). The regulation names no safeguarding task for the Inspectorate, so ask your lawyer which other rules apply to you.

Education is one of the sectors that must have a reporting code (meldcode) for domestic violence and child abuse. The decree of 16 July 2013 says the code needs a step plan, a weighing framework and named tasks for staff.

Where the education acts apply, the school board must also see to safety at school (Article 4c of the primary act, Article 3.40 of the secondary act).

The Dutch government lists five steps for the code. Veilig Thuis, the national advice and reporting centre, receives the reports.

• Map the signals you have seen.
• Talk to a colleague, and to Veilig Thuis if you need advice.
• Talk with the people involved about your concerns.
• Weigh how serious the situation is.
• Decide whether you can arrange help yourself or must report.

For most concerns, the Dutch rule is to follow the reporting code. Staff report to Veilig Thuis when a child faces acute or structural unsafety, or when they cannot arrange help themselves. Professionals who hold information through their work may also share it with Veilig Thuis without consent (Article 5.2.6 of the Social Support Act 2015).

A stricter rule covers sexual offences against pupils. In schools under the education acts, an employee who learns that a person with duties at the school may have committed one must tell the school board at once. The board must consult the Inspectorate's confidential inspector and file a police report if the talk shows a reasonable suspicion.

Check whether these duties reach your school. The secondary act applies its reporting-code, safety and sexual-offence articles to state-funded schools and to two other categories in the Compulsory Education Act. Designated international schools sit in category 4, and the primary act sets its own scope in Article 7.

These duties may therefore not apply to your school directly, so ask a Dutch lawyer to confirm. The Dutch texts cited here were read on 19 October 2026.

If a child is in immediate danger, call 112. Then follow your school's child protection procedure and tell your designated safeguarding lead (DSL) the same day. Check each number again before you print it.

• 112: emergencies. The government lists it as toll-free across the EU.
• Veilig Thuis, 0800-2000: free advice and reports on child abuse and domestic violence, open 24 hours a day.
• 0900-8844: the police number when a matter is not urgent.
• 0800-0432: De Kindertelefoon, a free child helpline open daily from 11:00 to 21:00.
• 0900 111 3 111: the Inspectorate's confidential inspectors, on working days from 8:00 to 17:00.
• Your DSL: tell them the same day, every time.

Your accreditor expects a clear procedure for noticing, recording and passing on concerns. CIS says the shared standards cover allegation management, staff selection, and detecting and reporting abuse. The International Task Force on Child Protection (ITFCP) publishes key expectations for school programmes, and ITFCP standards explained walks through them.

Many policies also borrow from Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE), the guidance for schools in England. It has no legal force in the Netherlands, so say so in your policy (see which parts of KCSIE travel abroad).

Write one procedure with the Dutch steps built in. Staff tell the DSL the same day, and the DSL decides whether to report and to whom, with advice from Veilig Thuis and the school's lawyer. Name the board contact for a suspected sexual offence by anyone with duties at the school.

The article on mandatory reporting laws for international schools shows how to map the local duty on one page.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies directly in the Netherlands. The Dutch implementation act is the Uitvoeringswet Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming (UAVG), dated 16 May 2018. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP) is the regulator.

Where consent is the legal basis, a child under 16 needs the consent of a legal representative (Article 5). Criminal-law data, such as a conviction on a police certificate, may be processed only in the cases that Articles 32 and 33 allow (Article 31). Ask counsel how that applies to hiring checks.

If a breach must be reported, the school has 72 hours from becoming aware of it to tell the AP. The school, as controller, is responsible for the report, and the AP takes it only through its online form. Involve your data protection officer in handling the breach.

Transfers outside the European Economic Area (EEA) need a legal tool under Chapter V of the GDPR, such as an adequacy decision or a model contract. The sources cited here show no Dutch rule that keeps records in the country. Ask each software supplier where it stores data.

Child Helpline International lists De Kindertelefoon as Dutch only. Ask Veilig Thuis which languages it offers. Name a staff member who can make the call in Dutch.

Corporal punishment is unlawful. End Corporal Punishment reports a ban in all settings in the European Netherlands, and a 1920 court ruling ended teachers' right to punish. Write the same rule into your staff code of conduct.

The Dutch certificate of conduct is the Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag (VOG), issued by Justis. Justis has an education screening profile. People outside the Dutch population register apply to Justis directly, and Justis says a decision takes 4 to 8 weeks.

Justis looks at records from a candidate's home country only in some cases, such as EU nationals applying to work with minors. Ask for police certificates from other countries where the person lived. See safer recruitment in international schools.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current law with a Dutch lawyer and the relevant authority. Then work through these steps.

• Ask your Head which designation and accreditors apply to your school.
• Ask a Dutch lawyer which duties reach you: the reporting code, the school safety duty and the sexual offence process.
• Write the reporting route on one page, naming the DSL, the deputy and the board contact.
• Save the numbers for Veilig Thuis, the police and the confidential inspectors where staff can find them.
• Call Veilig Thuis for advice before you need it.
• Check where your safeguarding records are stored and who can read them.
• Add the VOG and police certificates from other countries to your hiring checks.