Pohde asks top court to settle who pays for disabled children’s care

North Ostrobothnia’s wellbeing services county, Pohde, has asked Finland’s Supreme Administrative Court to clarify whether it must arrange morning and afternoon care for disabled schoolchildren, Yle reports.

The dispute has continued for years. Pohde says municipalities could provide the care by adding staff to their existing, fee-based programmes. The wellbeing services county considers it unreasonable that it should have to provide a personal assistant for a disabled child.

Dozens of families have challenged Pohde’s decisions after being required to pay for care arranged by municipalities. In most cases, the Regional State Administrative Agency and, later, the administrative court have ruled in favour of the families.

The authorities have found that disabled children are entitled to free morning and afternoon care arranged by the wellbeing services county. The Regional State Administrative Agency has argued that a service need caused by a disability must not create additional costs for the disabled person. Disabled children may need this care throughout their school years, unlike children without disabilities.

Pohde is appealing a case in which the administrative court and the Regional State Administrative Agency required it to provide a disabled child with a personal assistant during morning and afternoon care.

According to Pohde, the child would not actually need an assistant paid for by the wellbeing services county. It says the child could manage in the municipality’s ordinary afternoon programme if the municipality increased its staffing. Pohde argues that requiring such an adjustment from the municipality cannot be considered unreasonable.

“It has remained unclear on what grounds the administrative court concluded that morning and afternoon activities under the Basic Education Act were not a sufficient service for a child with an intellectual disability,” Pohde says in its application for leave to appeal.

Pohde also points out that the child had attended care without a personal assistant during holiday periods.

The wellbeing services county says there is insufficient case law on when care for a child with an intellectual disability must be arranged under the Basic Education Act, when it must be provided under the Act on Special Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities, and when the two forms of service should be combined.

Services provided under the Basic Education Act are paid for by municipalities, while services under the Act on Special Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities are the responsibility of wellbeing services counties.

Pohde also says there is no established case law on whether providing sufficient staff support is a reasonable adjustment when a municipality arranges morning and afternoon activities for a disabled child.

“Municipalities and wellbeing services counties are constantly negotiating these issues, and services are organised in different ways in different parts of Finland. Even within the same wellbeing services county, municipal practices differ significantly,” Pohde says in its application.

The decision by the Northern Finland Administrative Court that Pohde is challenging was issued in June 2026.

In May 2025, Pohde told Yle that it did not intend to seek leave to appeal in cases being considered at the time, because the legislation on disability services had changed in 2025.

It is not yet known whether the Supreme Administrative Court will grant leave to appeal.