FAQ – School mediation service

What does the following mean ...: “keeping students in school”, “inclusion” and “integration” ?

The aforementioned law of 18 June 2018 defines the three focus for the School Mediator, as follows:

Keeping students in school

all actions and measures aiming to prevent teenagers or young adults under the age of 25, who are no longer subject to compulsory schooling, from leaving school with no qualifications, which means without having obtained a high school degree, a technical certificate (DT), a vocational training certificate (DAP), a vocational capacity certificate (CCP) or a qualification equivalent to one of these certificates;
all actions and measures aiming to reintegrate these teenagers or young adults back into school or another training institution.

Inclusion

Any matters relating to the integration of students with special educational needs in primary and secondary schools.

Integration

Any matters relating to the integration of primary or secondary school students who have not spent all of their education in Luxembourg and whose language skills in German, French or Luxembourgish are thus insufficient, causing them to fall behind in their schooling.

What are the missions of the School Mediator?

Among others, the School Mediator’s mission is to deal with complaints and grievances received in relation to situations in which the school is either not providing adequate training or is not functioning in accordance with the mission it is entrusted with, or in which the school or the service under the authority of the minister in charge of national education in Luxembourg is not complying with the laws, regulations or other instructions in force.

The School Mediator assists the students (and their parents) in this process. To do so, and when a complaint is considered by the School Mediator to be justified, an investigation will be undertaken and, after having discussed the matter with the different services and/or schools involved, the School Mediator formulates a recommendation to all the parties concerned.

The School Mediator can, on the one hand, provide advice to the different services and schools involved as well as to the complainants, on the other hand, suggest solutions or make recommendations with a view to resolve the situation to everybody’s satisfaction.

The School Mediator, in due course, passes on proposals, in the form of recommendations, to the minister in charge of national education in Luxembourg. These proposals are intended to improve the functioning of the services and schools in which the Mediator has had to intervene. He latter also draws up an annual report relating to their field of activity and in which he reiterates, completely independently, the recommendations he deem to be useful. The report, which is published on the website of the National Ministry of Education, is sent to the chamber of deputies and to the government.

When can a matter be referred to the School Mediator?

The School Mediator can only act after all other appropriate administrative procedures established within the framework of the school community by law have been exhausted. In other words, a solution must first be sought with the concerned parties from the school community (e.g. at primary school, the class teacher, the regional director; at secondary school, the teacher, the director; in a centre de compétences for specialised educational psychology, the main educator, the director).

Once the matter has legitimately been referred to the School Mediator, the latter must inform the complainant, in writing, of all the follow-up actions undertaken. When the School Mediator does not deem a complaint to be justified, he will provide his motivated decision in written form to the complainant.

What about confidentiality and professional secrecy?

Even if the School Mediator is authorised by law to obtain from services and schools all the information he deems necessary to open and carry out an investigation, he may only do so with the prior written consent from the student or the parents in case the student is underaged.

In addition, the School Mediator and the officials of the school mediation service are required to respect the professional secrecy and, in this respect, nothing that would allow the identification of those who have requested the help of the School Mediator can be included in the documents created under the authority of the latter or obtained in any way whatsoever.