The school ouderbijdrage invoice: every line on it is legally optional

In the first week of September the email arrives: ouderbijdrage, somewhere between a few dozen and a few hundred euro, itemised into a school trip, a camp and a Christmas celebration. The invoice is in Dutch, and a parent who does not read Dutch usually assumes it is part of the tuition and simply pays it. The Dutch government states the opposite in plain terms. The wording is that the voluntary parental contribution for extra activities outside lessons is not compulsory, and it adds that you do not have to pay and do not have to explain why you are not paying.

What makes the rule hold is the second half. If you do not pay, your child may still join every extra activity, and the school may not route around that by parking the child somewhere else: the rule says explicitly that schools may not offer a pupil a replacement activity. Not paying therefore cannot leave a child sitting in a classroom on the day of the trip. That differs from how school fees work in many other countries, which is exactly why this invoice is so often misread.

• Copy the invoice out line by line, total it, then mark each line pay or skip. Legally the two columns have the same consequence for the child, who joins either way
• Open the schoolgids. It must state how high the contribution is, which extra activities the money funds, that the contribution is always voluntary, and that pupils may always take part in everything the school organises
• If any one of those four is missing, it is reasonable to email the school and ask for it. That is not being difficult; it is information the school is required to publish
• Mind the scope. What is voluntary is the part covering extra activities outside lessons, while teaching itself and the core materials are publicly funded and do not belong on this invoice

Hokimi field note: declining is not the same as falling out with the school. You may fund the trip line and skip the celebration line without justifying the ratio to anyone. For the exact wording and the four schoolgids requirements see source 1, and for which primary-school costs are publicly funded see source 2.