Parents may choose how their child will be educated in the Netherlands. The Dutch education system is made up of three major types of schools: public schools, Catholic or Protestant independent schools and non-denominational independent schools. Each of these groups of schools has national organizations for parents, teachers and school boards.
In addition to these three organizations, there is the Association for Public Authority Education (VOO), a national group that has a membership of about 25,000. This membership includes 2000 parents’ councils, 1000 participation councils, and many thousands of individual members, two-thirds of which are parents. The VOO generally weighs in on issues of school standards, is considered by the government to be the primary parents’ group in the Netherlands, and influences policy on both the local and national level.